Weaslink
by Ivy Invictus
Summary: "Scorpius Malfoy always knew he was going to end up with Rose Weasley one day. You can have anything if you commit yourself hard enough to it, he was certain of that. However, there was one thing he shouldn't have neglected: when it comes to love, it's all about timing." Next Gen/Scorose at Hogwarts.
1. Charm and Stubborness

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Besides a laptop and some books.

* * *

"I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends."

\- Walt Whitman

* * *

Scorpius Malfoy was many things. A Slytherin, for one part. A Pureblood, also, even though he was so adamant to make everyone forget about the fact he sometimes seemed to do so himself. He was a friend before being a son. It was said that he was a workaholic, but he preferred the term _passionate_. He was tall, blonde and charming. But first and foremost, Scorpius Malfoy was stubborn. That's why, deep down, he had always known he was going to end up with Rose Weasley some day. When, months before, a friend would bring to his attention that _you can't always get what you want,_ he would answer that it is exactly the opposite. You can get anything, if you commit yourself hard enough to it. All you need is, as it happens, a little bit of charm and stubbornness.

Scorpius Malfoy had been in love with Rose Weasley for exactly 1098 days before acknowledging it.

It wasn't much of a love story, really. They had simply been friends until they weren't. And when later he would be asked, as every lover is, to tell the story of how they met, he would be able to say with total certainty that he had loved her since day one. Not like that, of course. But it was still love. Oh yes, people who were around at the time will tell you that they seemed to fight most of the time, but forget about that. They couldn't know the _true_ reason.

The first time he talked to her, he knew she was going to have an impact in his life. His intuition had never failed him. He knew he loved her. Of course, it wasn't romantic at the time. How could it? He was barely 11. But he had seen unwavering friendship unfold in front of his eyes, and he had known that he, too, wanted that. Because you can get anything with a little bit of charm and stubbornness. Even love, he was certain of that. Nonetheless, there was one thing Scorpius shouldn't have neglected. When it comes to love, it is all about timing.

A lot can happen in 1098 days.

There would be a wedding. (But not theirs.)

There would be help from above. (Literally.)

There would be a very white smile, a burnt carpet, a three-day-storm and a map.

But perhaps, in the end, it all started with a very, very ugly fish.

* * *

The room was so quiet. He could actually hear his own heartbeat drumming in his chest. Under other circumstances, he would have loved how slow and peaceful this moment was. Under other circumstances perhaps, but not now. He could perceive the soft ticking of the seconds running out. There wasn't even a clock in the room, he just could hear the time pass in his own head, as seemed to always be the case when he was growing impatient. His long fingers started toying with the quill he was holding - swan feather, glad you asked – as he looked down on his parchment. Save his name in the top left corner and the title, the page was blank. He had stared at those words for so long now that they didn't make sense anymore. He was never going to finish that essay, he knew it perfectly well, but then again he never contemplated the idea of achieving his assignments in detention. And why would he? He was going to be out of here in just a few seconds. If only she could hurry up…

What _on earth_ was she doing?

He heard a sigh coming from his left and couldn't help grinning at the familiar noise. He tilted slightly his head over to Albus, who was clearly having a hard time staying still. Al was always a real child whenever he was in detention. His hair was ruffled, that is, even more than usual, due to extreme out-of-boredom head holding. Either complaining or fidgeting about, he sure made really clear to everybody in the room that he hated every minute of it. _Such a Gryffindor_ , he thought. Emma, on the other hand, who was currently sitting in the back of the almost empty classroom, was completely expressionless, looking around, examining her desk as if it was a miracle of some sort. The dark circles under her blue eyes attested of how tired she felt. When she saw him turn around, she raised her head and caught his eye, before mouthing a silent question, gesturing towards the redhead sitting in the front row. In response, he simply shrugged. He had no idea either. He shifted in his seat again, putting himself back in front of that desperately white parchment and lifted his gaze to a few rows ahead of him, where Rose was sitting. She was writing frenetically, the soft scratching noise of the quill on the paper being the only sound that resonated in the classroom. She seemed completely oblivious to the restlessness her three friends were clearly showing. But he knew better than that. She didn't do obliviousness. She was actually the most perceptive person he had ever met.

They had got detentions for countless reasons before. The most common ones being sneaking out of their dorms, forgetting to attend certain classes and constantly finding themselves at places of which existence they shouldn't even be aware of. Of course, launching a protest that got so out of control their whole year decided to be on strike wasn't to be forgotten. Along with the time they had enchanted the Christmas tree ornaments to sing their praises whenever one of them was around. But serving his penitence for stealing a poorly treated fish, that had to be a first. He didn't even like the bloody thing. It was purple and extremely aggressive. Plus, he didn't even think the creature was living such a miserable life to begin with, but who was he to argue when Emma had something in her mind? You may question the plan but you cannot question the purpose, that was the rule. And it so happened that the plan involved them out of that damn classroom. What was she waiting for? He even thought about clearing his throat, before deciding against it. That was probably the less subtle thing to do, and what they were doing here was all about smoothness. Of course, that train of thought hadn't occurred to Albus, who coughed loudly a mere two minutes later, in what was probably the least genuine way to do it. That triggered Rose. He could sense more than he could actually see her raise her eyebrows. She did do a lot of eyebrow rising, especially when Albus was involved.

He couldn't see her face, obstructed by that thick curtain of red hair of hers, but he saw it anyway: this tiny movement she made, barely recognizable. She tilted her chin to the side and he knew what it said. Let's go.

It was nothing, completely invisible to anyone but him, for he was sitting just behind her: Rose took her wand, lying on her lap, and executed a delicate flick of the wrist. The four students held their breath during this split second when they were not sure if the spell was going to work. Fortunately, it did and they all let out a relieved sigh in unison when the heavy eyelids of Eyssen, their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, fluttered a couple of times to finally close completely. His head hadn't even touched the back of his chair that they were already out the door, leaving all possessions behind. "Thank Merlin!" Albus whispered as he exited the room, being the first out the door. Rose let her three friends go out before her and as soon as they were all in the hall, she closed the heavy wooden panel behind them very, very carefully. One sound too loud and their little escape was over. Rose's part, getting everyone outside without trouble, was done, so she let Emma take over.

"It's the third cupboard on the left. No time to waste." The blonde said in a businesslike tone, leading the way down the dark corridor. Not particularly willing to stumble upon the caretaker, they fell in step behind her, careful to make their footsteps as light as possible. "We'd better hurry, since someone here decided to take her sweet time knocking out the professor." Emma added with a sideways glance at Rose.

Said Rose made an offended face. "Oi, if it wasn't for me, you lot would still be in there, so a little respect perhaps?"

Albus spread his arm on Rose's shoulder and kissed the top of her head, which was something that had became quite of a habit since his fourth year growth spurt had made it possible. "Yes, yes, for the hundredth time, you saved our lives, and we're all really grateful. Happy?" His satisfied grin would have been annoying if he didn't look so damn joyful.

"Very much so." She answered with a chuckle, wriggling herself out of her cousin's embrace. She seemed to notice something, or rather someone, was missing and she turned her head around to the fourth student. "You coming Scorpius?"

The tall silhouette that had stayed a few steps behind grinned as he finished unfastening his green and silver tie. "You bet I am."

Emma led them to a cupboard in the adjacent corridor, where she had stored four broomsticks that she handed to them one by one as weapons to soldiers going to war. "We only have an hour and a half, so better be quick about it."

They all ran to the courtyard, as smoothly as possible, and took off as soon as their feet touched the grass. The air was cold, nothing surprising for a February evening, but even Antarctic was better than detention with Eyssen. They were simply glad it was so dark, because that meant one less thing to worry about: being seen. Two minutes later, they landed onto what could only be described as the least comfortable place on earth, especially when the weather decided to be shitty: the Quidditch stands. Of course, Emma the flight prodigy was already there, as her broomstick left on a bench could testify, although she was nowhere to be seen. The wood cracked under their weight as they put their broomsticks down. Now the whole castle was out of earshot, Albus moaned really loudly while collapsing next to Emma's broomstick. "Blimey, I thought we'd never get out of there."

Rose made this typical annoyed noise Albus was always on the receiving end of, and sat on the bench just below her friend, followed by Scorpius. "Please, we spent thirty minutes in there. You do realize that if I let you rot in detention, it would have been that increased fourfold? Plus, you could use that spare time to do your assignments Al, that way you wouldn't have to come crawling to us every morning asking for permission to copy ours and that really could-"

"You lost me at fourfold, kiddo." He lifted his head a little from where he was lying in this outstandingly elegant way that made his face contract and made it look like he had a double chin. "How's Chubby?" he called out to the back of the stands.

"He looks okay." The dark answered.

The three heads turned to the voice, waiting until Emma reappeared, levitating a water orb containing a plump, angry looking four-eyed violet fish towards them. She sat down next to Albus, carefully placing the globe in the center of the circle, letting it float in the air, two inches above the bench. "Who brought the food?"

"I did." Rose replied as she took out of her pocket a small jar holding something apparently small, brown and crawling. She used her wand to take the lid off and select a few of the sticky things inside – worms, freshly stolen from the Care of Magical Creatures Professor's office – before levitating them to the fish, which opened its large mouth and gulped them down before Rose even had the time to lower her wand. " _Bon appétit_ , Chubby," she breathed in a flawless French accent.

"So, what are we going to do with him?" Emma sighed as she lied down, her head next to Albus's, her feet facing the other way. "We can't keep him in the Quidditch stands forever."

"Why don't we release it into the lake?" Albus suggested.

"Huh-huh. He'll get eaten in a second."

"And that is our problem because…?"

"Because," Scorpius intervened with his deep voice that often made people shut up before Emma could jump in "we didn't get detention for abducting an incredibly ugly fish to simply have it killed two days later."

"Thank you Scor." The witch replied with a soft voice, not caring about the offense made to Chubby in the process.

When Emma had emitted the proposition of stealing Mrs Sigma's pet fish on the grounds of how she seemed to constantly take out her anger on the poor thing, they hadn't thought for a second it would mean having to play baby-sitter for it afterwards. Since they had been caught sneaking out of Sigma's office the very same day Chubby, actually named Ptolemy, had vanished into thin air – even though they had vehemently denied to the professor that these two facts were related – they couldn't very well keep it in one of their dorms right after the theft had been committed. Too obvious. Inside the castle would be a risk too: anyone could find it there. So here they were, freezing in the February temperatures, because, according to animal-expert of the group Emma Longbottom, the damn purple fish needed feeding as well as some company.

"We can leave him here until Saturday." She went on, muffling a yawn. "I'll bring him to my dorm before the game. Then I think we should take turns guarding him, each one a week until the Easter Holidays. Deal?"

She had obviously thought this through during the thirty minutes of boredom that had just been granted to her. They couldn't say no, considering how she had put up with every little whim one of them may have had during those last six years without blinking. Therefore, they simply nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Now it is settled," Albus stated with glee. "I say we seal the deal with some celebratory beverage."

Scorpius was a step ahead of him, and as Albus turned naturally his head towards him as he finished talking, the former lifted a bottle of firewhisky over his head in response.

Rose frowned. "Firewhisky? Seriously? On a school night?"

"Oh, come on, just a little, it won't kill anyone, I promise." Albus pleaded.

She shrugged, letting it go. It was their problem. Scorpius shifted on his seat a little bit, facing away from the pitch, eye-level with Albus and Emma. One of whom was gesturing to the firewhisky like a baby reaching for a feeding-bottle, and the other one settling more comfortably on the hard wooden bench, her pony-tail falling on her face, rising and falling in sync with her breathing in the funniest way possible.

Rose had to pass the bottle from Scorpius to Albus, both of the boys too lazy to stretch and do the transaction themselves. In the process, Albus's arm brushed against Emma's cheek, which made her groan.

"Oh no you're not dying on us, Missy" Albus protested upon noticing her eyes were closed. "You won't fall asleep again on detention night!" That simply made her groan once more.

"Detention night?" Rose laughed. "You make it sound like it's a party. Like it was planned, even."

"But it is! A party, I mean." He took a long sip of firewhisky and answered with a contempt grin. "We should make that our tradition. Getting detention every Thursday. It'll be fun, just think of all we could do to achieve that!"

"Please," Scorpius interrupted "we already get detention once a week, mate."

"Yes, but not _on_ _purpose_."

"And why would planning it make it any different?" Rose asked, chuckling.

"Because that would make us mischief geniuses!"

"Wouldn't true mischief geniuses avoid getting caught?" His cousin pressed.

Albus sighed, knowing more than anyone that getting in an argument against Rose and Scorpius meant never being right again. "Rosie, you're not really supportive here and as your beloved cousin I find it to be extremely annoying."

She shrugged off this last comment. Only when he was trying to get something from her was she _Rosie_. Rest of the time, she was simply _Red_.

"What's the point if you don't get caught?" Three heads converged towards Emma, who had surprised them all by speaking. Even though it was in that sleepy-lazy voice that proved she was close to drifting off, and she hadn't even bothered opening her eyes. "True mischief geniuses would delight in the glory of a weekly detention night. You don't become a legend by being a smart arse."

Albus slowly rose on his elbow and took a long look towards the girl lying beside him. "Emma," he said in a tone of pure admiration. "I want to have your babies."

"Cool," she sighed, her tone still weary. "Now that I've made myself useful to the dynamic of the group, can you please let me sleep?"

They did. For about five seconds or so. "Why are you so wrung out anyway?" Scorpius asked as he recovered his bottle from Albus's thirsty hands.

"What do you think? Had Quidditch practice the whole afternoon."

Albus gestured with his hand. "Come on, I had a pretty tough work-out myself and you don't see me napping during gang time."

Scorpius met Rose's gaze and they both internally chuckled. Then he shook his head at his best friend. "A snog session with Lizzie Clement is _not_ considered a work-out."

"You've clearly never kissed her." Albus snorted. "These French birds are wild things."

There was pride in his voice. The two girls' eyes met for a brief moment – Emma having seemingly decided to open her eyelids - in a look of shared lassitude. Nothing more irritating than dear old Al talking about his numerous conquests. What a shame it was that this boy had never been taught that when it came to relationships, it wasn't about the quantity, but the quality. Sadly, they had given up a long time ago on making Potter a better man, code for "not leaping on everything that smiles back".

Rose cleared her throat, not in the mood for the complete account of her cousin's definition of a _wild thing_. She stuck her index in his ribs, making him jump. "You know what would be perfect right now? Sugar quills." She threw in her most angelic smile and Albus obliged. After rummaging through his magically enlarged robes pocket, the boy took out an impressive stack of snacks immediately passed from hand to hand until everyone had something to chew on.

That was why it worked so well between the four of them: usefulness. Each one had a _thing_ , because apart from their fondness of each other, they didn't seem to have much in common.

They let silence settle in as they nibbled their sweets. Rose turned around on her seat and rested the back of her head on Albus' lap, facing the darkness of the pitch bathed in silver by the moonlight, and the castle behind, magnificent as always, its illuminated windows standing out on the black winter sky. She thought about Eyssen, hopefully still passed out on his desk, and felt a twinge of guilt for a second. Then she glanced over at Emma, Scorpius and Albus, and it was gone in a heartbeat.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one whose thoughts had drifted this way.

"What do you think will happen to us if we get caught?" Albus inquired, filling Rose's head, leaning on his leg, with the vibrations coming from his voice.

"If we get caught for what?" she asked, still gazing into the darkness "having invented a silent spell to send figures of authority to sleep or being on the Quidditch stands at this hour?"

"You forgot drinking alcohol on school grounds." Scorpius added, ironically taking a sip of the dark bottle to illustrate his point.

Albus had a deep laugh that made Rose's hair dance. "I meant sneaking out of detention but yes, that too. Do you think we'll get expelled?"

The pitch fell in utter silence for a few seconds, until a little voice, no louder than a whisper, could be heard. "They'd never expel us," Emma's ponytail answered. "They love us too much. Those two are top of the class" she gestured with her chin towards Scorpius and Rose, "my dad's a professor and you're a Potter. Besides, our parents virtually saved the Wizarding World, so…"

Rose's eyes immediately shot to Scorpius, just in time to see him gulp an impressive mouthful of firewhisky. Damn, how Emma could be insensitive sometimes. The war was a delicate topic to discuss with Lucius Malfoy's grandson, and who could blame him? Unlike his three best friends, Scorpius had never exactly known what had happened to his family during those dark times. Grey area.

She scooted closer to him, allegedly to get another sip of firewhisky herself, when all she truly wanted to do was put her arms around him. When he mechanically handed the bottle to her, she let her palm rest on his fingers for a few seconds, long enough to make him turn his head towards her. His grey eyes met her hazel ones, and because there was nothing more she could do, she simply gave him an intense look, hoping it would say what she couldn't pronounce out loud. _It's nothing. Our families don't define us. You're the best person I've ever met._

He gave her a sad smile, almost apologetic, and squeezed her small hand in his. He wasn't the one who needed reassuring, Rose was. Constantly thinking he would break in half because his parents weren't as perfect as theirs. As always, her fingertips were cold. He didn't let go, not even when she rested her head on his shoulder. She simply let her gaze fall on the bench in front of her. And there, looking back at her in its water bubble was a very, very ugly fish.

* * *

Had she fallen asleep? Or had she simply drifted away to this dreamlike state that Albus had a long time ago named Weasland? After having cast a few warming charms to fight the cold, they had all fallen silent for a moment, and she had closed her eyes, just for a second, inhaling the smell of the cold and Scorpius's hair, as he absent-mindedly toyed with a strand of red hair, which she thought had become more of a comforting habit than a gesture of affection. She couldn't remember having fallen asleep. All Rose knew now was that her friend's hand brushed away her hair at the exact same time the first raindrop fell on her cheek. What had brought her back the fastest, she couldn't say. Her body felt sore from the rigidness of the bench, and the strange position she had adopted. She sat up, realizing she was leaning against Scorpius and lifted her nose to the sky. The moon, which casted the only light visible, was now hidden behind a thick blanket of dark clouds, made white for a fraction of a second by a lightning bolt.

"Oh crap." Rose whispered, her voice covered by the grumble of the thunder, which followed an instant later.

She took a look around and according to the clues she gathered, she guessed that more than an hour had passed. Emma was still asleep on the bench above and it was clear that the boys had taken upon themselves to finish the bottle without the girls' help. Nothing surprising there. Albus had apparently been more thirsty than Scorpius, according to the way he was slurring his words while trying to say "it'ssss… it'sss- gonna rrrain, Emm-Emma, get up-"

That did the trick. Rose was alert again. "Are you kidding me? How much did you let him drink?"

Scorpius made this half-sorry, half _what should I say not to wake the dragon?_ face he always made when he feared she was going to get angry with him. "I'm sorry, I didn't notice, you two fell asleep and we started talking and… you know how he is!"

She stole another glance in her drunken cousin's direction. "Do you think he'll be able to ride a broomstick?"

Just at that moment, Emma woke up in a jump and instinctively slapped Albus right across the face. It took her a few seconds to analyze her surroundings and realizing what had happened. "Merlin, Al I'm sorry, you just surprised me-" but in vain, for he was already laughing so hard his breath became erratic.

Rose sighed loudly and let her head fall back on Scorpius's shoulder. "Don't answer that."

It was a long and scabrous walk back to the castle, a giddy Albus leaning on a tired Scorpius, while the two girls walked a few steps ahead, carrying the broomsticks. The rain lashed at their faces, making it all the more difficult to walk, already slowed down by the slope they had to climb. The pallor of the moon was the only lighting they had, considering that a good old Lumos might look suspicious if someone decided to look through the castle's windows.

"I honestly think I've never seen Al this drunk before," declared Emma after she peered over her shoulder to make sure the boys were still following.

Rose took a peek herself. Albus seemed to be mumbling words which, according to Scorpius' small grin, must have been pretty funny. Feeling this strange sensation as if she was infringing on their privacy, she quickly turned her head back. Once, a long time ago, she had overheard one of their conversations. Once and never again, she had promised herself so. She shook off the memory and raised an eyebrow towards Emma. "Need I remind you of the last start-of-the-summer Potter bash?" she remarked, her voice a little out of breath due to the tiring walk.

The blonde pinched her lips. She, on the other hand, didn't seem exhausted at all. "Good point. Let me rephrase that: I've never seen Al this drunk before _at school_." She paused, and took two more steps, yet Rose knew by the way her voice had dropped that she wanted to add something. It came a few seconds later. "Do you think he did it for… a reason?"

Rose, who had stopped to readjust the position of the broomsticks in her hand, gave her friend a puzzled look. "Something like what?"

"I don't know" Emma shrugged, slowing her pace to allow her friend to catch up "But… why would he drink so much otherwise?"

"Please, it's Al, he'll drink whenever there's a bottle around and –" The tense tone Emma had used suddenly became clear. "Wait a second, are you worrying about him?"

It was hard to tell in the dimness, but Rose was pretty sure Emma was biting her lip. Bad omen. There was something she wasn't saying.

"What is it?"

Emma came closer to Rose to prevent the boys from hearing them, even if Albus was slowing himself and Scorpius so much that they were way behind.

"He's just having trouble in class, he might not pass and I think that might worry him more than he likes to admit, that's all. So, yes, I guess he's never been the wisest amongst us, but getting that drunk on a school day? It wouldn't surprise me if that was related."

Rose's eyes opened wide, in a mixture of surprise and a strange sense of disappointment with herself. "He's having trouble in class? Like, difficulties? Why wouldn't he tell me?"

"He hasn't told Scorpius either I reckon, though you know how close they are. It's normal in a way, with you two being all straight O's like you are, that's the kind of stuff I'm the only one he can confide in."

This wasn't a bad argument, actually it made sense, Scorpius and her having always fought for the title of the owner of the best grades in their whole year, behaviour that could probably be traced back to their dads and that first Hogwarts Express ride. Nonetheless, Rose couldn't help feeling a little betrayed. Albus was not only her cousin, but also one of her favourite people in the world, and she wished he had told her himself. She was the Ravenclaw after all, she was the one that could really help him out. There was no way they wouldn't all start their last year together.

Glancing behind her shoulder, she caught Scorpius whispering something that made Al raise an eyebrow. The two boys looked up at the same time and she turned around hastily, without really knowing why she felt like such an intruder. That was precisely the moment the sky chose to open up, transforming the thin rain into a sudden shower.

Rose sighed and let her head fall backwards, having to talk loudly to be heard over the sound of the raindrops echoing on the ground. "Now what?"

She could sense Emma's big smile without even having to look her way. "Now, Red... we run like hell."

And so they did, even Albus, who ran surprisingly fast considering how slow he had walked. Since flying was out of the question due to Albus's intoxicated state, and they couldn't very well enter unnoticed by the Great Hall, they had to take the long way around the castle to be able to sneak back in. By the time they were under cover back in the school's corridors, they were soaking wet. Albus had sobered up a little during that cold journey but not enough to fool an intelligent professor. Fortunately, this wasn't Eyssen's case, considering it was the fourth time this year the burden of supervising their detention had fallen upon him, and the fourth time he had inexplicably fallen asleep during said detention, without suspecting a single thing. Once they had put the brooms back in the cupboard, Rose performed four Ventus spells to dry them all. As they were making their way hurriedly to the classroom, she turned to Scorpius.

"It's your turn now, Sneaky Snake."

"I did not sign up for that nickname," he whispered in return but she just snorted. "And my turn to what?"

"You're the lying master here, so when I undo the spell Eyssen's under, you better come up with a credible story about why we stayed in detention forty five minutes later than we should have."

He decided not to focus on the backhanded compliment she just paid him but rather on the surprising part of it. "We did?" The right corner of his mouth twitched up in that typical Malfoy grin Rose had always been so jealous of. "Guess detention night is more entertaining than I thought."

He pushed the door of the classroom ever so cautiously and waved his friends inside. They all got back to their desks as silently as possible, careful to sit down without making a single noise. Scorpius took a deep breath and entered last, with his grin still on. If he had learned one thing throughout all of his Hogwarts years, it was that nothing ever surpasses teamwork.

* * *

Albus gave out a bear-like groan when the two girls opened the curtains of his four-poster bed without even stopping their chatting. His first thought was that he really didn't like having headaches. His second was that he wasn't a big fan of light, either.

He had known they were coming. He could have recognized Rose's voice and Emma's laugh reverberating in the staircase in his sleep, but some part of him had hoped they weren't coming for him. So much for his lazy morning. Of course they were. Why else would they be in the Gryffindor tower? He could hear their voices but not make out the words they were saying; he hadn't completely turned his brain on yet. He heard the tone specific to a question but wasn't sure if it was meant for him or for each other, therefore he simply decided to roll on his stomach and moan once more. Either they were going to give him hell for skipping the first two classes of the morning or they were going to give him bacon. With those two, you never know.

"So..." It was Rose's voice, coming from so close to him he decided to open one eye. He could see her, blurry shape of familiar shades, dark red hair and pink cheeks, on the edge of his vision. She was sitting on the floor next to his nightstand, her chin resting on his mattress. "How's the head?" she asked in a soft voice, attentive not to make him suffer more than he had to.

"Not so bad," Like every first words in the morning, those three came out hoarse. "...surprisingly."

"Then what's your excuse for skipping class, Mister?" That was Emma, way less thoughtful, who had settled herself at the end of his bed and was currently poking his leg with her foot.

"Why do you always feel forced to make my life miserable?" he mumbled, his voice half muffled by his pillow. When he had first opened his eyes a few hours ago, awakened by the sound of his roommates getting up, his body had felt a little heavy and his mouth a little dry. That was reason enough to let his head fall back on the pillow and go back to sleep. He was planning on calling in sick for the whole day but that was without counting on Rose and Emma's intervention. "You shouldn't be here anyway," he croaked. "It's morning and I'm vulnerable."

"We share blood you and I, mi casa es tu casa." Rose dismissed with a questionable Spanish accent.

"Well, it's not the case for Emma." He rolled around, finally facing up and able to see both of his friends. "For all I know she could be plotting to steal my virtue."

The girl's foot punched him a little less softly than before. "You're the one half-naked here."

"And I know you like that." He smirked at her in that way he knew she hated. Rose cleared her throat, so he pulled the sheets up to cover his bare chest, which wasn't exactly useful since he decided to sit up a few seconds later, making them fall back on his lap. "At least tell me you brought bacon."

"What do you take us for, amateurs?" Emma took a little paper package out of her bag – that he knew had been cautiously wrapped by a House Elf - and handed it to him. "We know how to coax you into getting out of your lair, Lion cub."

His hand reached hungrily to the pack and tore it in two to reach the holy food inside.

"Wherech's Schcorpius?" He asked as he bit eagerly in a greasy bacon slice.

"Where do you think he is?" Rose replied. "In class! Some of us actually attend, you know."

Her hand went to the bacon and she picked a piece she started chewing on. Thank Merlin, the House Elves were so completely in love with Albus they'd do anything to make him happy.

"What are you two doing here then?"

Emma kicked off her shoes and sat more comfortably, leaning her back against one of the poles surrounding the bed. He had a point. "We have free period." She explained casually. Rose snorted, making the blonde shrug before she went on. "Okay, yes, Rose does. I have Ancient Runes, but no one takes this class seriously anyway."

Rose shook her head, making her hair bounce. "I really should report you both." As a Prefect, and an aspiring Head Girl at that, hanging out with those two and Scorpius was a trial.

"Yeah like you would do th-" Albus' gaze went past Emma's shoulder and to the doorway, and he rose an eyebrow. "What are you doing here? As if this room wasn't too crowded with oestrogens already."

The two girls turned their heads in unison towards the petite silhouette that had entered the room. "You should be nice to your sister," Emma commented. "Who do you think let the bacon in?"

Lily let out a sigh, leaning on the doorframe. Her long and straight hair was in a braid hanging on the side of her head and she was wearing striped tights under her Gryffindor uniform which kind of made her look like a red-headed pixie.

"Better get up Al. Apparently there's going to be an announcement." And with an apologetic smile to her brother, she disappeared in the staircase.

Albus mumbled something and slumped back onto the pillows. Why was it this time? He could decide to skip the assembly, even though presence was absolutely mandatory, it wasn't terribly more important than classes. But he didn't exactly want to. Whenever an announcement was made, it was all the school talked about for days. With a final grieving sigh, he got up and started collecting pieces of clothing around his bed while the girls were paying him no attention, chatting on his bed. He walked to the adjacent bathroom, not closing the door the entire way, so as to keep up with the conversation at hand, even if he wasn't a big part of it. He splashed some water on his face, hoping that would wake him up. He met his own gaze in the mirror and glanced at the dark circles under his green eyes, perfectly matching the way his hair was sticking out in all directions. That'd have to do.

He was getting bored of announcements. The Deputy Headmaster, Nox, a tall and thin wizard who always looked on the verge of dying, believed strongly in the benefits of teachers-students communication. Therefore, once or twice a week, they all had to gather in the Great Hall for a long and tiring speech about either his life-long battle against mischief or the fact that he was very happy with the efforts the students had made to walk more lightly, to prevent their steps from echoing down the corridors – efforts that, of course, only existed in Nox's head. This obsession seemed to annoy the professors as well, who had to modulate their schedules depending on the Deputy Headmaster.

As the three of them made their way down the Gryffindor Tower and into the Entrance Hall, they stumbled upon Scorpius who was going the same way. His uniform looked a bit crumpled, for one who always looked so trim and the usual expertly tousled state of his hair seemed a little out of control, probably due to the storm and the late-night drinking of the day before. He grinned at Albus with his characteristic taunting expression.

"Can't hold your firewhisky, can you, dollface?"

Albus winced. "Shut up. No loud voices allowed anywhere near me."

Scorpius exchanged an amused glance with Rose as they all parted ways, each heading towards a different table.

Rose walked up to the Ravenclaw table, looking around without thinking, now used to being a prefect and watching over her house. She sat down next to Theo Goldriver, the Head Boy, who was waving at her.

When she was settled, he flashed his flawless smile at her. "So, what do you reckon this time? Needs our opinion on his new robes?"

She smiled back, because that's what people did around him. "Then it's a no from me!" Though one year older than her, Theo had always been one of her favourite Ravenclaws.

He laughed at that. He was Nox's nephew, and yet seemed to be the most irritated by his behaviour. Perhaps it was, she thought, precisely _because_ he was Nox's nephew. "So, patrol together tonight?"

"Schedule says so."

"Good, I'll bring the sweets-"

He was probably about to say something more but he never had the chance, for a loud cough magically enhanced and coming from the professor's platform interrupted him.

"My dear children-" said this now familiar voice.

They looked up to see Nox in his usual grey robes and emaciated face. _Oh no, he's getting sentimental,_ Rose thought. Which meant one of two things: either he had bad news coming, or he was going to give out detentions and warnings left and right. Two hundred heads all lifted towards the platform, although not showing the littlest bit of interest for what was about to be said.

Nox positioned himself in front of the exact center of the desk as he always did, looked right, looked left then cleared his throat. Pretty standard.

"Although it is exact that you have been making outstanding efforts in all kind of fields, for which, and I know I can speak in behalf of the whole teaching faculty here at Hogwarts, we are most grateful…" There was some eye rolling at the half-empty teacher table that made the students snort but of which Nox stayed completely oblivious. Rose looked around and caught Emma making googly eyes at her over at the Hufflepuff table. She answered by raising her eyebrows, her usual says-it-all grimace. Whatever the efforts referred to, they were completely imaginary. "Nonetheless, there has still been an increase in the number of detentions and misdemeanours, and that is intolerable. To prevent our school from becoming a land of mayhem, a decision has been made." Here it comes, Rose thought. This announcement was definitely of the repressing kind. "Past a certain numbers of remarks or detentions, your privileges will be taken away. That means prefect duties, Quidditch, clubs, trips to Hogsmeade… Or even reinforce your curfew."

A murmur of disapproval crossed the Great Hall before his sentence was even over. It grew louder until becoming shouts coming from everywhere. No one could be sure if that was by pure contradictory spirit or if the students were really cross. Rose gulped. That wasn't in her advantage at all.

"Where is this coming from?" Theo's voice came next to her, sounding outraged. "Can they even do that?" Rose couldn't help but being taken aback. Coming from him, that reaction was kind of unexpected. He never got in trouble, no matter what, considering he was Head Boy and therefore pretty much above the law.

"I guess." She replied, but her words got drowned in the noise. She didn't like that new decision one bit. She needed her prefect duties. To be relieved of her functions was out of the question.

There was throat clearing again, but it being completely ineffective, Nox eventually decided to shout. "Silence please!" The noise subsided a few seconds before the student body calmed down. "This is only fair that you need to be worthy of your benefits. Now, to set this up, a board has been placed in the Entrance Hall, on which are recorded everyone's detentions. A maximum of eight detentions per school year is allowed. If you have already exceeded that quota, no other misstep will be tolerated." Another wave of shouts rose from the benches but that time, Nox reacted more quickly and raised his voice. "If you have questions, myself as well as your teachers would be glad to answer them. But this decision is definitive. Thank you all. You may now return to class."

Most of the students got up, some dashed towards Nox before he had even walked down the platform. Rose bit her lip and turned around. Her gaze immediately caught Albus's, at the Gryffindor table, who was making the exact same face. He sighed and mouthed one word.

 _SHIT._

* * *

Rose Weasley: 11 detentions, 7 remarks.

She sighed. Of course. She didn't even know why she was still hoping for less than that. Since her first year, since their little group had become what it now was, she had surrendered on all the expectations of goodness her parents had set upon her. She thought that maybe, on some level, her mother wanted Rose to have a calm, irreproachable school life, to make up for her parents'. That had sadly gone out of the window after only a few months here at Hogwarts, when she had discovered the joys of sneaking out past curfew. Albus and Emma had wanted to settle once and for all the ever-running "who's the best at flying" debate, so they had arranged a meeting on the Quidditch pitch at night, because that seemed fierce and sort of adventurous at the time. Rose, in reason of her unbiased mind, had been asked to arbitrate. And Scorpius, who had overheard them talking about the plan in a classroom, had been his usual Slytherin self and tagged along, no matter what they thought about it. From the stands, Rose and Scorpius had watched Albus get his arse completely kicked, and over that debacle, they had bonded. She was pretty sure she could trace their unusual friendship back to that very day. When laughing and running back to the castle, they had been caught. Speaking of whom… Her eyes travelled on the black enchanted board, to the other House columns.

Albus Potter: 19 detentions, 16 remarks.

Emma Longbottom: 11 detentions, 3 remarks.

Scorpius Malfoy: 17 detentions, 4 remarks.

Seemed like Emma was the more dutiful out of the four of them, yet even she was still not blameless enough to fit Nox's new standards. Ridiculously high ones, if you asked her. They lived in Hogwarts 24/7. They were young people with magical powers. They were entitled to a little havoc now and then.

"Looks like we're screwed" came a voice next to her.

She turned her head to the right to find Scorpius, bending his tall frame towards the board to check his name, just like her. They were both blocking the way as well as the view from the younger pupils, but they didn't seem to care in the slightest.

Rose bit her upper lip, habit she had whenever she was thinking. "We might not be."

"Are you having an idea?"

"Perhaps."

Some pretentious first year that only reached Scorpius's waist and who obviously suffered of terrible hair situation pushed between them. "'Scuse me!"

They shared a look before deciding to move away from the board, but not before Rose had the time to steal a look back to the Slytherin column.

Hugo Weasley: 3 detentions, 7 remarks.

That seemed fair enough. Not spotless, for sure, but how black kettly that would be of her to scold her younger brother. Scorpius and she went away and walked to the big staircase where Emma and Albus, who had already looked at their scores, were sitting. Next to them was James, who looked very pleased with himself, one hand thrown over what seemed to be a very annoyed Emma's shoulder.

"Get off of me, Potter"

"-not everyone can be a slick bastard like myself, you see." He was saying to his brother, ignoring completely Emma's half-hearted attempts to disentangle herself. "Fred, Louis and I are totally off Nox's radar."

"Yeah well, we obviously aren't." Albus returned with a distant look.

"You could…" his voice dropped a tone, as if he was going to let them in on a secret. "Start by not stealing people's pets."

 _He_ did have a point. But where would be the fun in that?

"What's your number?" Rose asked her 7th year cousin, knowing he had an unfair advantage.

"Two detentions." He replied proudly, a huge grin on his square jaw.

"Figures."

Just two weeks ago, on Louis's birthday, which took place on a Monday, Fred, James and him had sneaked into The Three Broomsticks after dinner to celebrate properly, only getting back to the castle in the middle of the night. Their classes of the next morning were oh so fortunately cancelled, due to a sudden and mysterious one-day illness the professor had caught. And in spite of all that, two detentions were all they got.

"Well well. Gotta go. Potions." He got up, stretching his long legs in front of him. "Al, I'll see you later. Emma, my one true love." He planted a noisy kiss on Emma's ear, who immediately became red with anger. "Go away, Potter!"

He started off, laughing, and shouted over his shoulder in the direction of Emma. "Try not to lose tomorrow's game!" before leaving them on the spot. Rose stole a glance over to Scorpius who was leaning on the railway, completely expressionless. He was the only one who hadn't known James since childhood, and was therefore not forced to put up with him no matter what.

"Your brother's an arsehole." Emma spat in direction of Albus, her eyes following James's back down the corridor.

"It's not because he won the Quidditch Cup last year that-"

She raised her hand between them. "Please stop talking."

The Great Hall was getting more and more empty as students left to get back to class, passing them to ascend the staircase. The four of them stayed behind, not in a hurry to go to Charms since the announcement had given them a perfect excuse to be late. Albus let out a sigh. "This sucks. I had forgotten he had the power to make actual changes, the bastard."

Even though Nox had always seemed a little bipolar to everyone, he had never gone to such lengths to make himself respected. Because what else could that all be about?

"I guess I liked Hogwarts being a land of mayhem…" Emma started, toying with the end of her usual ponytail. "But I can't risk Quidditch."

"And I don't want to blow my chances of being appointed Head Girl." Rose added.

Neither of them wanted that. They had been caressing the idea of having a Head amongst them for years. Countless privileges. A private room. And more importantly, a cover for any little rule transgressing they could feel like doing. They had quickly admitted that Rose was their only chance, and she was in a good place to achieve that goal. But one foot wrong, and that was out of the window.

"Are you-" Albus started, incomprehension on his face. "Are you two breaking up with us?"

Rose muffled a laugh. "Of course not. We don't have to stop sneaking out _per se_ … Just stop getting caught." She turned towards her cousin, who had raised his head towards her.

He understood immediately. "You think? I've thought about it. But that'll never work."

"What-" Emma started, but got quickly interrupted.

"It could work!" Rose continued, not paying her friend the slightest bit of attention. "We just have to be clever."

Scorpius tried an incursion into the confabulation. "What _the hell_ are you two talking about?" but to no avail. He shared a look of deep resignation with Emma and they both let the evil cousin pair plot. That happened more often than they would care to admit, these moments of connection probably brought by a childhood spent together. Scorpius, who had been standing up, decided to sit down too on the steps, next to Emma. He put his chin in his hand, watching intensely Rose, still on her feet, facing them. Strangely enough, that seemed to be his favourite occupation. Her face was incredibly expressive, especially her eyebrows which had always held him in profound fascination. There didn't seem to be anything she couldn't express with her eyebrows.

"He'll never agree!" Albus was saying, shaking his head vehemently.

Rose had a mischievous smile. _There!_ Scorpius thought. A great example of eyebrow perfection. Absent-mindedly, he tried to mimic that expression, as you do sometimes when engrossed in a book.

"Well-" The redhead said, with a tone matching the smile. "You see, we have something he can't refuse."

"Okay" Emma sighed with theatrical exaggeration. "We're getting sick of your telepathy thing."

Albus shrugged. "That's the Weaslink, my little friend. You wouldn't understand."

She rolled her eyes and so did Scorpius. They both were only children, a feeling the Potter-Weasley offspring were unable to understand.

"No, I wouldn't." Emma answered, perhaps a little too harshly. She regretted it as soon as the words had left her mouth, so she tried to be a little gentler. "Would you care to explain yourselves?"

Rose and Al shared an uncomfortable look, which made her frown. This didn't look good.

The redhead cleared her throat, not meeting her eye. When her best friend couldn't meet her gaze, this meant trouble for her. "Well… I fear you're gonna need to sacrifice yourself to the greater good."

Before Emma had the time to protest, Albus scooted over to her and patted her on the back. "Are you free, say, next Saturday?"

* * *

"You want me to _what_?"

Emma's incredulous face was definitely not a good sign. The plan possessed one single flaw: convincing her. Except for that it was, Albus decided, one of their greatest. Their footsteps echoed in the hallways as they hurried towards their next class. After being scolded by the caretaker in the Entrance Hall about their staying behind, they had decided to simply obey because that's what you did in times of war. They couldn't just pretend to leave the staircase and then go hang out in another corridor, not when such threats were in the air. Rose couldn't risk her prefect privileges, Emma her captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team status, and the boys didn't want to sacrifice the butterbeer drinking and record purchasing they did on Hogsmeade weekends.

"We would like you…" Albus repeated in a very low voice, as if talking to a little child. "to go on a date with James. One. In exchange for the map. Easy peasy."

Emma shook her head, making her ponytail wave dangerously close to her nose. "Nice try. Not in a million years."

Albus sent Rose a pleading look. "A little help here, Rosie?"

"Alright, Emma look." She started, businesslike, as they took the right junction of the corridor. "No detention possible. That means no staying in the Nest after curfew. No sneaking into each other's common room. No more north tower Mondays. Basically, we'll only see each other in class. And what would become of Chubby, nobody knows. Do we want that?"

"No we don't." Albus declared over Rose's shoulder, even though this had clearly been a rhetorical question.

"Only one solution, getting the Marauder's Map from James. That way, we'll always be one step ahead from Morse and keep up as we were doing before, minus the detentions." She turned to Emma, hoping her eyes communicated all the begging she was implying. She could understand how unpleasant the thought was to her friend but they had no choice. "Pretty please?"

Emma took a deep breath and for a second, they thought she might yield. "Do you realize what you're asking of me?"

They did. Since puberty had kicked in and James had started flirting endlessly with her, he had become less and less of a childhood friend and more of an unsubtle suitor to her. What's more, they were Quidditch rivals. Since Gryffindor had won the cup last year, she could not hear the end of it. She didn't exactly dislike him, she just disliked having him around for long periods of time.

"You know what," intervened Albus, stopping in his step because they had arrived a few feet from the door of their class. "This is a democracy right? Let's have a vote. Those in favour of the plan…"

He raised his hand, followed by an apologetic-looking Rose. Predictably, all the looks converged to Scorpius who had carefully avoided taking part in the debate so far, feeling that it wasn't his place to give his opinion. Now he was the only one who could settle the matter. He winced, not sure what he should do.

"Scor…" Pleaded Emma. Usually, she could count on him to intervene and bring sanity back to the group when the other two were being too mad or mischievous. They usually listened because if the Slytherin says it can't be done, it just can't. Yet…

"I'm sorry." He raised his hand as well, owing him a cross look from Emma and huge smiles from the cousins. He sighed. "I just love north tower Mondays..."

Emma opened her mouth to protest but Rose didn't give her a chance to, because she knocked on the door before half-opening it, forcing them to go silent. "Thank you Emma, you're the best," she whispered swiftly before entering the classroom. They could overhear from the hallway Rose's polite apology for their lateness as Emma went in after her, making a point of stepping hard on Albus's toes in the process.

* * *

The afternoon had been more endurable than he had imagined, thanks to his headache that'd had the decency to subside after lunch. Charms had been boring as always, sitting next to Scorpius who managed to scribble every single word the professor uttered on his parchment and still chat with him under his breath, a level of multitasking which didn't fail to impress Albus. Anyway, since his best friend had such complete and thorough notes about the lesson, it would be completely useless to do the job twice so he had basically kept himself busy by analysing the sitting pattern of the students. Surprisingly enough, more Hufflepuffs were to be found in the front rows than Ravenclaws, who actually seemed to be occupying most of the back of the class. In the desk right in front of Scorpius and him sat the girls, Emma humming a song while taking notes – actually more like writing down random words that didn't even seem connected between them and that had popped in the professor's monologue – which was the precise reason no one except for her three friends ever wanted to sit next to her, in spite of the fact that she was appreciated by all. The unconscious singing. They had gotten used to that strange habit of hers after six years of constant proximity, but for people less used to the fact, it could get quite distracting. After Charms, lunch had been spent convincing Emma that she didn't have to worry, because the survival rate for girls who went on dates with James Potter happened to be 100%. _"And how can we be sure that he's going to accept?"_ had she asked. As a matter of fact, they weren't. But James would hardly be able to resist the challenge. In the end, persuading the obstinate Emma to spend her Hogsmeade Saturday with his brother had been oddly easy. Yes, Emma Alice Longbottom was a competitive and proud pain in the arse but still, she was first and foremost a great friend.

"Felix culpa" he stated to the Fat Lady as he arrived at the entrance of the Gryffindor tower. The portrait swung open, revealing the buzzing Common Room. The place seemed strangely packed for such an early hour. Usually, students preferred to stay in the Nest until curfew forced them all to retreat to their common rooms. He didn't have to look for his brother very long, since it had been six years that James seemed to always occupy the same spot, the rug in front of the fireplace. As usual, he was sprawled there, captivated by a book, his back propped up on the sofa. Albus dropped his books on the coffee table, louder than he intended, yet the noise didn't seem to faze James, whose eyes didn't even move. He then cleared his throat, placing himself in front of his brother and waited a few seconds until, Albus guessed, he finished reading the page he was on.

When he seemed to be done, James lowered his book on his lap and repositioned his spectacles on his thin nose. "Can I help you with something?"

The 6th year cleared his throat, careful to make his brother understand he meant business. "As a matter of fact, you can-" he started, stopped in the middle of his sentence.

"You want the map, don't you?"

Albus's fake solemn expression vanished as his forehead wrinkled. "How would you know?"

"I knew as soon as I saw your face during the announcement." James grinned. "I'm a Potter too, remember? And I think I'm going to keep it, but congrats on trying anyway." His eyes went back to his novel without further debate, clearly communicating he thought the conversation over.

"Do you take me for an amateur? I have come with a deal."

James sighed, seeming genuinely contrite. "Al, I'm sorry, I really wish I could give it to you, but you'll just have to wait until the end of the year, this is how it works. I got it from Teddy and you'll have it next year when I leave. Just do me a favour and try not to get yourself in trouble until then, will you?"

Albus frowned. "That's not fair that you got to keep it seven years, and I one."

"Well, I'm the oldest, you can't fight it." James's eyes went back to his book, even though he kept talking. "And I'll have you know I was named after two of the map's creators so it seems pretty fair to me."

Realizing he was losing his brother's attention, Albus took a step forward. "So you don't even want to know what I have to offer?"

The older boy shrugged, not bothering to lift his eyes from his book. "Not really… What could you possibly have that I would want?"

"Oh, I don't know… A date with Emma Longbottom, perhaps?"

The book was closed in a second.

"I'm listening."

* * *

Rose pocketed the worms just in time. A second later, Theo was rounding the corner, meeting her with a flash of his usual perfect smile. Not that she was hiding anything from him especially, she just reckoned that, in light of current events, she'd better keep the invertebrates discreet. Since she had patrol duties, her friends had estimated she could as well pay Ptolemy a little visit since she would already be out in the castle after curfew, and that she had an alibi.

She smiled back, because that's what you did around Theo Goldriver.

He was carrying a lot of paperwork and gestured towards the Heads Office, in front of which Rose had been waiting to meet him. "Do you mind? I have to set it down."

"Not at all."

She pushed the door open for him, letting him walk first into the small packed room in which they held the prefects meetings. She couldn't make out much now the light supplied by the torches in the corridor was behind them, so she cast a powerful Lumos to settle a shining orb near the ceiling.

"Thank you," he said as he dropped the stack of parchments he was holding onto a table, before starting to rearrange the shelves to make room for it. "Thanks to Nox's new law, we have a ton of new forms to fill out. To make sure no breach to the rules is neglected."

"We wouldn't want Hogwarts to become a land of mayhem." Rose ironized in a deep voice supposed to impersonate Nox's.

He chuckled, putting the parchments away. Once it was done, he met her back at the door and they started casually walking down the corridor, knowing that the chances they'll stumble upon rogue students were slim. No one that had attended Hogwarts for more than two days would be silly enough to sneak out of their dorms at the precise time and place of the prefects' patrols, which happened to be public knowledge. Yet, it was true than once a month, you could find the occasional 'cupboard couple', as they had getting used to calling the inter-house lovers, in the Astronomy Tower.

Theo was making an effort not to walk too fast, as was normally his habit, because he knew Rose had to take twice as many steps to keep up with his long strides. She could tell in his awkward way to bounce up and down whenever his foot left the ground. She _was_ short, there was no denying it, since her 13-year-old brother could look at the top of her head. The Head Boy, on the other hand, hung more on the tall side of the spectrum, almost as much as Scorpius.

"I really don't see why Nox decides to act out now. It's the middle of the school year." She stated as they turned mechanically on the North wing corridor.

"Well, I guess in light of recent events…" He stopped, opening a closet, more out of habit than diligence. Naturally, except for the few cauldron-polishing devices on the shelf, it was empty.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked as soon as they were back on tracks.

"Well…"

"What is it?"

"A pet _did_ just get stolen."

"But she was mean to Chubby!"

"Ha!" Theo turned to her, smirking. "So you admit to the crime?"

"I'm not admitting to anything…" She retorted, the corners of her mouth threatening to break into a tell-tale smile. She lowered her voice into a whisper. "Or I'll have to kill you."

"And patrol alone, bored and candy-less? Doubt it."

She couldn't help but laugh. It was effortless talking with him, a blessing after a day of arguing and negotiating in every aspect possible. Getting Albus out of bed, playing the Devil's advocate with Emma, attempting to talk the Herbology-teacher-and-almost-uncle-Professor-Longbottom into making Nox revalue his choices… That had been a long day. Especially knowing last night for Rose had been spent on a wooden bench, in the cold, even in the middle of a rainstorm at one point, accompanied by alcohol and three friends in varying degrees of intoxication and exhaustion.

"So…" she cleared her throat. "You think that all came from… from the fish?"

He shrugged as they climbed the staircase leading to the third floor. "I don't know, it's just rumours I heard. But it is true that Albus detains the higher detention score of the whole school."

"Really?" She raised one eyebrow, her lips curling at the ends. Better not make Al aware of the fact, or chances were he'd have shirts made to celebrate his title. "So you read everyone's scores, uh?"

"I'm Head Boy. It's my duty."

"Even _my_ score?" She inquired with a grin.

"Of course, especially yours." He pointed to a closet next to Rose and she opened it, making sure that- that what exactly? That no one was throwing a housewarming party inside? "I was quite surprised by the number of remarks you got." He went on, watching out for her reaction with the corner of his eye. "Since you don't seem to skip classes much."

"Yes well…" She avoided his eye, shoulders hunched in. "Apparently I sort of talk back to the professors?"

He let out a small laugh. "Rebellious Rose Weasley… Who would have thought?"

"I know, she started apologetically. If it was true that the Head students helped the teachers choose their replacement, she'd better not seem too turbulent to Theo. "It's just that-"

"Don't worry," he cut her off before she could stutter an excuse. "I like it."

She looked down, blushing slightly. Damn traitorous cheeks.

The next three classes they opened at random were empty. The castle was completely deserted, as they expected it to be, save for Professor Finch whom they stumbled upon on the third floor. They smiled as innocently as they could, Theo swelling out his chest to make his badge all the more visible. The pair of prefects went on on its usual tour, letting their footsteps echo on the empty hallways. There was nothing as beautiful as the castle at this hour, Rose thought. The purring noise of the burning torches, casting shades of red into the blue light, the whispers of the portraits, and the shadows. Oh, the shadows, wavering and licking the walls. They were the best part.

Their patrol had taken the exact amount of time they had planned for it. Therefore, when they were back to the Heads Office, they still had to stay twenty minutes all eyes and ears before heading back to Ravenclaw tower. As it so happens, twenty minutes is exactly the amount of time needed to go through a box of chocolate cauldrons. Rose and Theo collapsed on the couch facing the open door – couch that had belonged to the Hufflepuff Common Room before it had been deemed to old and worn out, and had been put away in the prefects office- that way if someone decided to take a walk in the corridor, they'd know. He put the box of treats between them and both their hands mechanically disappeared into it.

"So," Theo started with hushed voice, as if telling a secret. "Is it true about Emma Longbottom?"

"What do you mean?"

"That she asked James out."

She groaned. Freaking Hogwarts and its ears everywhere. "News sure travel fast!" She tried to fake a small laugh, surprised that it was already a subject of conversation. "How do you know?"

"He told Fred, who told Louis, who told me. So I guess that by tomorrow, the whole school will know."

She frowned a little bit, knowing how that would annoy Emma if the rumour got out. "She didn't really ask him out-" She started, before realizing she wouldn't be able to tell him the whole story, since half of it was supposed to stay a secret. "But basically they're going on a date next Saturday, so I guess it's all the same."

"Please no more inter-house couples." He sighed. "They're so much trouble."

"How open-minded of you." She smirked, a second cauldron halfway to her lips.

"You know what I mean. Same-house couples have their dorms, their common room… While the cupboard couples have the girls' bathroom during lunch. And yes, I am talking about Albus Potter and that Beauxbâtons bird."

"Elise Clément." Rose corrected for him, even though he probably had little interest in the matter. "Sorry about that. He has a thing for Beauxbâtons girls."

Theo simply shrugged. "Who hasn't?"

Rose munched her chocolate cauldron, slowly turning her face towards him to give him an inquisitive look. He was making it too easy.

"Not me!" He amended hurriedly, blushing instantly. "I just mean that- you know. In general. Some blokes do. But I- I don't."

"Relax." She reassured, wearing a clear look of amusement on her face. "I don't care."

"Oh." He grimaced. "Sorry. So, anyway, what about you?" Faced with Rose's puzzled look, he was forced to rephrase. "I mean, since it seems to be socializing season for your mates, Longbottom with James, Potter and his French girls… What about you?"

She waited to have finished chewing and swallowing the huge chunk of chocolate that was in her mouth before answering. "I don't date."

"You don't- You just _don't_ date?"

She simply nodded. "Huh huh."

She didn't know what kind of reaction she was expecting from him, but the wide eyes he turned towards her took her somewhat aback.

"But _why_?"

She snorted. She had never had to give anyone a reason before. "Can you think of one single drama-free Hogwarts love story?"

Theo was silent for a few seconds, taking the assignment seriously. "Exactly." Rose sighed. "I have enough on my plate as it is with classes, prefect duties and the occasional past-curfew wandering."

Silence settled for a minute, only broken at one point by the sound of Theo's cauldron crushed under his teeth.

"But didn't you snog Terry Monroe at the Yule Ball last year?"

Rose, who had naively thought they had dropped the topic, chuckled lightly. "I just said I didn't date. Not that I am against the whole spectrum of human experiences."

He nodded pensively. "I see." He started taking a breath but stopped halfway, adding something more. "And that's definitive?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I never really got an opportunity to reconsider." Her heart-shaped face, which had been turned towards the door out of habit, shifted towards him, and she smiled this genuine, teeth-showing smile he inspired in her. Talking with him was refreshing. Not unlike her conversations with Alice, she didn't have to analyse every word that got out of her mouth to make sure it wasn't misinterpreted. From her own experience, talking to boys who weren't related by blood to her wasn't always this simple, this carefree. The conversation drifted towards the next prefect meeting and the bossy and super efficient Head Girl, whom Theo had trouble keeping up with, but who was more or less Rose role model in the school, until they both knew it was useless to hang around any longer. The chocolate cauldrons were put away, the light orb dismissed and the door closed behind them.

"Thank you for the chocolates." Rose breathed once they were in the corridor. "And the rounds. I had fun."

Sensing the parting tone, Theo frowned. "I'm not walking you back to the Tower?"

"No, not right now, Eyssen asked me to check something for him so I'll be-"

His eyes narrowed. "That's the fish, isn't it?"

On second thought, that _had_ been a shitty lie. Eyssen, their Head of House, loathed her. She sighed, not really in the mood nor able to persist. "What gave me away?"

"What do you think?" He rolled his eyes, though looking more amused than annoyed. "I know you're odd, Rose Weasley, but if you kept worms in your pocket for your own enjoyment, I'd really start to worry about you."

* * *

 **A/N:** Been wanting to write some Next Gen for ages, and I finally decided that life's too short to not write fanfiction. Hope you liked it, don't hesitate to review - all comments are welcomed and the probability that you reviewing will make me smile stupidly at my laptop is 100%. Plus, English is not my mother tongue, and I'm doing my best - but if you notice anything weird/incorrect, please tell me.

Thousand hugs coming your way for reading and/or reviewing!


	2. Shenanigans for the Straight-laced

Disclaimer: Everything you recognize = J.K.

* * *

"We have instant pudding, instant photos, instant coffee – but there are no instant adults."

– Jim Trelease

* * *

The Hufflepuff Common Room really was the most convenient place to host a party. The sun quickly setting on the scenery cast through the high round windows a purple light matching the loud, racy music and the purring chatter of conversations. The doors had been blocked open, admitting anyone who felt like joining in. Being way less exclusive than the other Houses, Hufflepuff's greatest pride was to not let anyone out. As Emma had once pointed to him "We're with our housemates every day of the year. Why would we want to keep our parties to ourselves?" And Albus had had to admit: that made sense.

Yet, that very night, as he was sitting in a leather armchair with a spiked butterbeer for sole company, Albus was bored. He didn't have many Hufflepuff friends save for Emma, and she was on the other side of the Common Room, in the centre of the dancing crowd with her Quidditch teammates, busy enjoying her victory. And since neither Scorpius nor Rose cared about the drinking game he had suggested ten minutes ago, and had dashed off Merlin knows where to do Merlin knows what, he wasn't having the tiniest bit of fun. No matter what judgmental remark his friends would have made if they knew, he could have used Lizzie Clement's company right about now.

His eyes scanned the crowd to analyse the pattern at hand. A few couples were scattered across the place, preferring dark corners for obvious reasons. The dancing body was situated in the middle of the room, and all the furniture that had been pushed to the side to make space for said body was occupied by small groups of chatting students. His eyes fell on a boy seated on a table, alone and apparently looking around just like himself. He was a 6th year too, a prefect, Albus was almost certain of that. Probably sensing he was being watched, the boy turned his head and met the Gryffindor's gaze. He looked behind his shoulder, not realizing at once he was the subject of Albus's attention. He seemed okay; even though his perfectly combed hazelnut hair said goody two shoes, the cup he held in his hand said otherwise. That'll have to do. Albus got up, taking his Butterbeer along, and walked up to the Hufflepuff bloke whose wide eyes betrayed the surprise.

"Can I help you?" he asked, seeming almost worried.

Albus grinned. "Do you want to play a game?"

* * *

Rose slipped one plate over to Scorpius and kept the other one in front of her. She looked at the piece of pie lying there, but didn't make any move towards it. The kitchens had merely been an excuse to get him alone. She wasn't even hungry. Scorpius, on the other hand… She watched as his fork dived into the pastry, but as it was about to reach his mouth, he raised his head and realized she was staring at him. His fork stopped mid-air.

"I have something to tell you," she blurted out.

"Oh, _really_?" His voice was barely above a whisper. "So you did _not_ drag me here to abuse my beautiful body?" His lips narrowed in a smirk, the one that really made him look like a reptile.

"I did not _drag_ -" she stopped halfway through the sentence and dismissed the question with a wave of the wrist, as he gleefully bit on his piece of pie.

"Anyway," she shook her head as if trying to start over. "I learned something pretty big that I think you should know."

He chewed silently, his elbows resting on the wooden work surface. She stared at him in the eye. A few seconds passed.

"Okay." He swallowed in a loud _gulp_. "Is that _all_ the information?"

"I don't really know if it's my place to tell you." She was twisting her hands. Her pie was still untouched. He counted to ten, but all she did was stare at her own fingers.

"Spill it already, Weasley!"

"Albus is failing."

She exhaled loudly. So _that_ was out of her system. The second the words left her lips, she felt a small twinge of guilt. It wasn't her secret to tell – but then again, neither was it Emma's to begin with, yet she had told her without scruples. And since that night, two days ago, she hadn't been able not to think about it. Finally, she was alone with Scorpius and able to talk to him about it. As usual, he would know what to do.

The Slytherin was still chewing on his piece of pie, looking pensive.

"What class?"

"Huh?" Rose looked up quickly, realizing she had been staring at his mouth.

"What class is he failing?"

What hadn't she thought of asking Emma _that_? "Huh, Potions I guess…"

"Obviously." Scorpius nodded. Al had become infamous for all his Potions fiascos – sometimes, Rose suspected, even voluntarily.

"Possibly Charms?" She added tentatively. "I'm not quite sure. I didn't get a chance to ask her."

Scorpius stopped focusing on his pie and met Rose's gaze instead. "Her?"

"Emma."

He straightened up from the almost right angle position his body had adopted over the table and his hand automatically went to his neck, proof that this confession had taken him by surprise. Contrary to what he thought, he did not see everything coming. He let out a sigh, and she knew exactly what his next question would be.

"Why did he tell Emma and not us?"

"Ha." She raised an eyebrow. "Why indeed. Guess."

She propped herself up with her arms to sit on the wooden surface, giving him time to let it all sink in. The fact that they had let things go this bad without noticing it. That Albus had felt for some reason it was best not to tell his best friends. That they absolutely had to intervene.

"So," Scorpius finally started. "What's the plan?"

She shot him a satisfied smile. "Glad you asked."

That was a relief. Finally being able to talk to him about that really was. She had known he'd take it a seriously as she did. She hadn't wanted to tell him at first, fearing she would in some way betray Albus. But in the end, she didn't really have a choice. As always, they were in this together, the four of them. Scorpius and Rose being the studious ones – although they had never applied to that position -, they needed to take action.

After Scorpius came to sit next to her while they discussed the details, she started nibbling on her piece of pie, helped by her friend to get to the end of it. She had never really liked pie. But he did, and there were tons left over from dinner.

Finally, Rose gazed at the clock on the opposite wall. "Perhaps we should head back. Our absence will start to seem suspicious."

"Oh yeah?" He chortled. "When did that start to be true?"

"You have a point." She chuckled too, knowing fully well their disappearing in the middle of a get-together had become quite the habit. "Either way, I'm not staying one second past Nox's curfew."

He let out a gasp, turning a shocked face towards her. "Dear Merlin. You're leaving me alone?"

"No, because you're going to bed in time too."

He snorted. " _You wish_."

She nudged him, the crease on her forehead there to witness she was being serious. "We're not getting in trouble yet, remember?" She jumped from the table in an awkward and jerky movement as Scorpius gracefully unfolded his long legs.

"Right. What we _are_ getting, on the other hand, is another drink for you."

"Yeah, _pass_. I'd like to be able to enter my common room."

"How many times will I have to tell you?" The snaky smirk again. "If that's the problem, you're always welcome in my dormitory."

She led the way towards the fruit bowl painting, not looking back at him. "Shut it, Malfoy."

There was no taking the wrong turn at the end of the corridor – the muffled yet loud echo of the music accompanied them all of the way. Also, the voices. It was a chance that Nox had agreed to Hufflepuff hosting a 'small celebratory party', for there would have been no keeping it clandestine.

Upon reaching the Hufflepuff common room's entrance, Rose stopped in her tracks, forcing Scorpius to bump into her back.

"For Merlin's sake, how long were we in the kitchens, again?"

The respectable, somewhat timid bash they had left only minutes earlier was not the one they returned to. The sulphurous reputation of the Hufflepuff parties had struck again. A true rainbow, what with all these colour of ties – including the uniforms of some Beauxbâtons and Durmstrang exchange students – entangled. Rose couldn't have been one of them; she never wore a tie anyway.

"Long enough, apparently."

Rose's shoulder leaned against the round doorway, Scorpius still right behind her, looking at the scene over her head.

It was true that the Helga Approved stamp had been given to many a couple over the last few years. Molly, for instance, had spent two years dating a boy whom she had first snogged at the legendary Hufflepuff Quidditch Cup Victory Celebration of '19.

It was more than obvious that tonight would feed the Hogwarts gossip mill for quite some time.

"Those two?" Rose pointed her chin to a pair not very far from them, thus starting her favourite game called 'The Malfoy Prognosis'.

"One week, two weeks tops. She's not the commitment type."

She nodded solemnly and changed the orientation of her gaze. "Hufflepuff and that girl over there?"

Said girl tilted her head back to laugh, and Rose bit her lip. She hadn't recognized her at first.

"Cassie…" Scorpius muttered. "Not gonna work out. He's had a crush on her for years but she-" he trailed off. "It's not reciprocal."

Rose hastily looked around the room for another subject. "Pissed Gryffindors over the window?"

"One night thing. She has a boyfriend."

"Really? Who?"

"Jude Thorne. 7th year."

"Oh. Right." How he did know all these things, even though it wasn't even about his own House, she had no idea. She snapped her head back to look at Scorpius but before she could tilt her neck enough to meet his gaze, a voice made her look back.

"Hi, Scorpius."

"Hey, Vicky," he drawled.

A tall silhouette had appeared in front of them, all long hair, hands on her hips and green tie loose.

"Have you just arrived? I was looking for you."

"Huh, no, we were there earlier…" He cleared his throat, taking a step backwards from where he was standing, against Rose's back. "We just left for a moment." That made the girl's eyes narrow.

"Hello, Victoria." Rose interfered, not a big fan of being completely ignored.

The witch eyed the redhead up and down as if she had just noticed her being there. Her eyebrows shot up in a fake look of surprise.

"What are you even doing here, Weasley? Ravenclaw _lost_ ," she said, putting extra emphasis on the last two words.

Stupid, arrogant, long-legged Slytherin git.

"Maybe, but my best friend _won_ ," Rose spat with an air of annoyance. Vicky tilted her head to the side in an artificial look of confusion, as if she was trying to understand whom Rose was talking about. "Emma Longbottom?" The redhead went on in the same tone. "Blonde, pretty, almost single-handedly kicked Slytherin's arse last term?"

The girl's long face froze in a rather nasty pout, lips pressed together. Quidditch players tended to be _so_ touchy. "Yeah," Rose added swiftly, mimicking Vicky's face in a perfect reflection, "-indeed."

With that, she brushed past the girl's shoulder and left them there, not bothering to look back at Scorpius. She spotted Albus and Emma quickly – even though they were on the far end of the room, they didn't go unnoticed, since there were sparks of magic flying everywhere around them. As she crossed the Common Room to get to them, she made out a third figure in the small circle sitting cross-legged on the tabletop. Spectacles, dark hair, every single piece of uniform in perfect state. She didn't have to get too close to put a name on that figure: Edgar Lomas, Hufflepuff prefect. Quite agreeable, but a bit shy.

Although, as she finally walked within earshot of the trio, the burst of high-pitched laughter that reached her eardrums made him seem anything but.

"Oy, Scarlet!" Albus greeted with a huge grin plastered on his face.

Rose raised an inquiring eyebrow, before letting out a small _ah_. "I see." She gestured towards her hair. "Red got a promotion."

Emma scooted over to make room for her friend, and though she hadn't planned on climbing on the table – after all, she was the only one on said table wearing a skirt -, she couldn't refuse the invitation. "So," she started after having settled herself, "nice to see you, Edgar. I didn't know you and Al knew each other."

"It's because we didn't," Albus explained before the poor Hufflepuff had the time to answer anything. "But since all of my friends had abandoned me…"

"You discovered that there are brilliant people outside of the three of us," Emma finished for him, grinning. "And that they are, unsurprisingly, in Hufflepuff."

"Thanks for the compliment," Edgar chuckled. His voice was a little slurry, and his eyelids seemed to weight a ton. _Each_.

Rose thought about the sparks she had noticed when she was walking towards them. It made sense to see the prefect looking so sleepy. "You were playing 'full circle', weren't you?"

Albus smirked. "We might have been, yes."

"Piece of advice," Rose turned to face Edgar. "You should never play 'full circle' with Al. He's good. He used to practice for hours in his room."

"Shhh, Rosie! Never reveal my tricks!"

Edgar erupted in laughter – who knew he had such a shrill laugh? It was quite infectious, actually. "I knew something was fishy!"

"With Albus, something always is."

Their four heads shot up to the source of the voice that had just spoken up. Scorpius had snuck up on them without their noticing; not particularly a prowess, considering the surrounding noises and loud conversations.

Standing just behind Rose, he put a hand on her shoulder, which she shrugged away. He was always so sure he'd get off easy.

He leaned towards her, and she could feel his hair tingling her ear. "You didn't have to be so harsh, you know," he whispered, as the conversation around them resumed where it had stopped.

"You didn't have to act as if I was the next-door neighbour," she hissed.

"Don't like me talking to other girls, do you?" She didn't have to turn around to know what his obnoxious face looked like at that precise moment.

"Just…" She shook her head slightly. "Shut it, Malfoy."

* * *

Rose couldn't have said how long they had been sitting there, in a circle on what was usually a study table. While getting to know Edgar – who, as is often the case with shy Hufflepuffs, was a pretty decent and funny bloke once he had started to feel at ease – they had slowly emptied their cups by playing Full Circle. Emma and Edgar were the clear losers, but since, unlike the others, they only had to walk through a hole in the wall to get to bed, it was probably for the best. Rose was a natural at the game, which was all in all a quite simple concept to grasp: each one took turns tracing a circle of sparks with their wands. As soon as the two ends of the loop met, the four others had to shoot a spark at that precise spot as quickly as possible. Fire too early, or too late, or not precisely enough, and you had to drink. Rose was the best at wandwork in their whole year, Albus had spent hours and hours practicing on his own, and Scorpius… Well, Scorpius was Scorpius.

It couldn't have been more than a half hour, really, it couldn't – yet when she looked behind her shoulder at the rest of the Common Room, it had greatly emptied. The only ones left were Hufflepuffs, mostly from the Quidditch team.

"What time is it?" Rose asked, startled.

Emma was the first one to answer, knowing where to look in the room for a clock. "Almost half past midnight."

"Blimey!" Nox had given them permission to let the celebration go on till eleven o'clock, and they had all taken gleaning thirty clandestine more minutes for granted. But the extended curfew had been allowed to Hufflepuff students – he hadn't said anything for the other Houses, which weren't supposed to be out of their common rooms in the first place. She stood up, getting off from the table, and eyed Scorpius and Albus with an apologetic gaze. "Boys, we really ought to get going."

"Woah, hold the horses there, Red." Albus exclaimed, holding a hand out. "We don't even have to get up early tomorrow!"

"C'mon Al, we said no rule-transgressing until-" Rose interrupted herself. She had been really close to blundering big time, there. She almost shot a sideways look in the direction of Edgar, but that would have been the less suave sign probably _ever_. She was no Albus.

"Too late for that." Scorpius stepped in with a snort. "Literally."

"Either way. The _rager_ is pretty much over, I'll have you know."

That did it. Albus took a look around, shrugged, and unfolded his legs from the table, shortly followed by Scorpius.

"I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow?" a very much yawning Emma asked.

"Of course. Get some sleep in the meantime." Scorpius softly squeezed her shoulder. "Again, congrats on the victory."

"Thank you," Emma smiled gleefully. "And thanks for coming. Especially you, Rosie."

"Anytime," the Ravenclaw answered with an affectionate wink.

"Bye Ed!" Albus pitched in, looking over his shoulder as he was already on his way out. "'t was great meeting you!"

The two Hufflepuffs stayed put, as they watched the trio make their way across the Common Room, then disappear entirely from sight as they took a turn in the corridor.

Hearing him sigh, Emma turned her head towards Edgar. He was shaking his head.

"Meeting me? We've been in Potions together for six years."

"I know." She leaned back on her elbows, exhaling as well. "That's Albus Potter for you, I guess. Emperor of obliviousness."

He nodded, seemingly taking it in. He really shouldn't feel vexed in the slightest. Al was blind to all students he hadn't been solemnly introduced to.

"Speaking of Potters…" Edgar started tentatively.

Seeing he didn't seem to get to the second part of that sentence, Emma distractedly emitted a "huh?" sound, as her gaze was lost somewhere in the Common Room.

"I heard, but I don't know if…" She slowly turned her head towards him, as he hurriedly got to the point. "Is it true you're dating James Potter?"

Her face froze as she sat up, as if shocked by lightning. "WHAT?"

* * *

Down the dark hallway and the ensuing flight of stairs, they reached the Entrance Hall. Albus and Rose parted with Scorpius, who left for the rather nearby dungeons. The cousins, on the other hand, had to make the tedious ascension towards their respective towers – and risk to get caught any second.

"Tapestry short-cut?" Albus suggested as they were walking briskly through the second floor.

Rose looked at him with a sly smile as she led the way towards said tapestry. " _Duh_."

They rushed into the hidden narrow staircase – old secret kept by the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor upperclassmen -, and made their way towards the towers. Once they reached the end of the staircase, Albus stopped on his tracks, before he started climbing further up.

"'Night, Rosie."

"'Night, Al!" She answered, starting walking backwards from him in direction of the East wing. "Tomorrow at 8?"

"You bet."

And with that, he was swallowed by the darkness of the corridor.

Two minutes later, having made sure to put her feet down as lightly as possible when she was walking, to keep the sound from reverberating, she reached the top of the seemingly endless spiral staircase.

"I have one eye but I cannot see," announced the eagle knocker in its familiar deep and metallic voice. "Who am I?"

Rose frowned, puzzled, but not the usual _Ravenclaw-struggling-to-get-in_ puzzled. "A needle. What even…" The door swung open, revealing the Common Room. She looked doubtfully at the knocker as she entered the empty room.

As she got in, planning on heading straight for the turrets and crash in her bed, she was stopped mid-course by a voice coming seemingly from nowhere.

"Well, well… Rosie."

She jumped at the sound, turning her head abruptly to find Theo and Louis, her cousin, who had been the one to speak out, both stretched out on the cushioned windowsill.

"Oh, it's you."

"You're out late." That was Theo this time, a suspicious grin on his face.

Louis' face narrowed. "You didn't actually go to the Hufflepuff bash, did you?"

Rose crossed her arms, grinning. It's not because Louis had lost that she wasn't allowed to have her fun. "What do you think?"

Her cousin inhaled, as if he was going to say something, but apparently thought better of it. Instead, he sighed. "Fine," Louis muttered as he sat up against the cushions. "Just don't flaunt your cheeriness around. The House's mourning."

"I won't _flaunt_ anything. Don't worry."

"Good," he nodded absent-mindedly. Obviously it was late, and he was tired, but for some reason hadn't decided to go to bed yet. He was holding a paper bag and, as he seemed to snap back to reality, he stretched his arm towards where Rose was standing. "Toffee?" he offered.

"Are those Grandma's?"

Louis answered by a simple nod and a yawn.

She thought about that piece of pie she had just eaten and how that had been enough sugar for the night. "Thanks, but I-" On the other hand, those toffees were pretty extraordinary, and her own stack had run out weeks ago. So, on second thought… "Just one, then."

She walked over to them, catching a glimpse of the amazing view they had of the lake from that window. Her hand went into the bag and retrieved one piece of soft, heavenly toffee that she quickly popped into her mouth. She chewed on it quietly, gazing over Louis' head at the reflection of the moon on the water while the boys shared a look. She noticed but didn't even bother to try and decode it. Obviously, something was wrong, but since Theo was to Louis what Emma was to her, she'd better not intrude. She finally swallowed the sweet and focused her gaze back on the boys.

"Why don't you two go to bed? You look knackered."

Louis stifled a new attack of yawn and that seemed to do it for him. "You're right," he said as he got up with difficulty, throwing a sullen look at Theo. "Let's."

He stretched lazily before crossing the room and disappearing in the staircase without another word. Rose knew better than to find it rude. The poor boy did lose a Quidditch game earlier. She could excuse a little grumpiness for the day being.

She turned towards Theo, who had just got up. "Well, goodnight. I guess you'd better be going," she offered, starting towards the staircase in her turn. The Head students quarters were located on the third floor, and it was getting pretty late.

"Wait," he called out to her, making her turn around. "I was hoping to talk to you actually."

"O-kay…" She didn't know what she was fearing; after all, it was only Theo. But he seemed grave, and she desperately wanted to collapse on her bed.

"I was thinking about that fish of yours…"

"It's not mine," she interrupted hurriedly, even though it was useless to try and avoid the blame since she had let him come along to the Quidditch stands the day before to feed Chubby. "If anything, it's Emma's. She's smitten with the bloody thing."

"Oh, okay." He seemed almost disappointed, which Rose found peculiar. Since when was he interested in Chubby? She thought Emma was the only person in the whole school crazy enough to care about a fat, mean, four-eyed fish. "Anyway," he went on with a shrug. "I thought that if you wanted, I could keep it in my room. It seems a safer place than any of your dormitories."

Her eyes widened a tad dramatically. "You would do it? Hide a smuggled animal? You? Head Boy you?"

"I hate Sigma and I have a room of my own, so I figured…" He smiled impishly. "Plus, I'm not nearly as straight-laced as you obviously think I am, which I feel a bit offended about by the way."

"It's not what I meant…" she offered shyly, but he laughed it off.

"Don't worry about it. Of course, you and Emma could come visit it as much as you like, and same goes for the boys, although I have a feeling they might not take me up on that."

She laughed along. "Yeah, you might be right. It's very kind of you, at any rate."

"Well, that's me: Theo Goldriver, very kind _not_ goody-two shoes." She hit his arm jokingly, as he started towards the door with a light chuckle. "Just think about it."

"Will do." She walked in the opposite direction, stopping right before the staircase. "Good night, goody two-shoes."

"Good night, smuggler."

And with that, the door closed behind him.

* * *

When Albus and Rose entered the Great Hall the next morning, they immediately knew something was wrong. Scorpius and Emma were already seated at the Hufflepuff table next to each other, and while the former was, as usual, leafing through Friday's Daily Prophet while chewing on buttered toasts, there was something undeniably amiss about Emma. Her plate was empty. Not only that – even though it was in itself shocking, since Sunday breakfast was what Emma lived for – but her hands were laying still on each side of said plate and she looked ready to murder someone. Rose and Albus took their seats across from the pair as she was finishing to tell him about how they should write to Grandma Molly to ask some more toffees to be sent immediately.

"Totally on board," he returned, as his hand shot automatically to the pitcher of pumpkin juice to pour himself a glass. "Hi there."

"Don't 'hi there' us." Emma's voice came out harsh. "We are not talking to you anymore."

Scorpius' head shot up from his newspaper with a startled look, seemingly not aware of the fact. His eyelids seemed heavy. It was probably one of his bad mornings.

Albus had a deep sigh and a sip of juice before diving into that conversation. "Okay, what are you on about?"

"And does this apply to me, too?" Rose inquired, puzzled.

Emma turned her face towards the redhead and her features instantly softened. "Of course not Rosie darling, please enjoy your breakfast."

Not needing to be told twice, she turned happily to the food as she started piling pancakes on the plate in front of her.

"You, on the other hand…" Emma's attention was back on the Gryffindor, and her jaw set once more. "Would you care to tell me why your idiotic brother is prancing around the school telling everyone that he and I are dating?"

Albus only shrugged. "I don't know. Because you are?" He leaned across the table to grab an already buttered toast from Scorpius' plate, who slapped his hand away one second too late.

"What?" Her eyes narrowed. "We are going on one date. One. Against my will. We are _not_ dating."

"Same difference."

Scorpius met Rose's gaze over the Prophet. _Oh boy._

"Are you shitting me Potter? You are going to tell your brother to pipe down and shut down that rumour _pronto_ , you heard me?"

Albus rolled his eyes. "Em, come on, it's out there already. We got it, okay? Loud and clear. You don't like James. Don't need to be overdramatic about it to get the point across."

Emma stared at Albus for a few seconds with a complete lack of expression before turning to the others, blissfully left out of the conversation so far. "Could you tell the brat I am no longer speaking to him?"

Scorpius had a light chuckle, which sounded startlingly like the sound his fork made against his plate as he rummaged among the scrambled eggs. "Funny you're letting Rose off the hook that easily since she was the one to come up with the whole travesty."

Rose shot him a glare. "Oh, so _now_ you decide to talk?"

He grinned, and she came critically close to throwing a grape in his pretty face. Which would have satisfied him entirely too much.

Emma shrugged. "Being mad at Rosie is not in my DNA. Plus it's not _her_ brother who's being a git who can't hold their tongue." She turned to Albus. "Make sure he doesn't expect anything from me. Not even to be nice or anything. I came, I saw, I left with the map. Got it?"

Albus smirked. "I thought you weren't talking to me?"

"Shut up," she retorted, lips pursued though he wasn't sure if it was out of anger or to keep from grinning. The pair of them never could stay mad at each other for more than ten minutes.

Silence settled in for a few instants as Emma finally started her breakfast routine, which consisted of a certain amount of piling waffles on her plate. Since it was Sunday and the majority of Hogwarts' population wasn't to be seen up and about before 9 on weekends, the Great Hall was pretty quiet, save for Emma's chewing sounds and the soft rustling of Scor's paper. Albus and Rose weren't exactly morning people, but since the tables tended to rapidly get pretty crowded, it was their only option to have breakfast together.

Rose was about to take a bite off a strawberry when she let out a small shriek. Three startled pair of eyes converged towards her. "Oh, I completely forgot, I have news! About Chubby!"

"What about the fat bastard?" Albus muttered through his toast, only to be met by another one of Emma's icy glance.

Rose turned to face Emma, making it clear she was solely addressing her. "You know Theo?"

"Golden Boy," Emma nodded, as if it was obvious. "Sure."

Rose was a little surprised by the nickname, but shrugged it off instantly. "Well, I couldn't hide Chubby from him, and he actually suggested to take it off our hands and keep it in his dormitory, since he has his own room."

"Really?" Emma stopped her fork mid-air. "That would be perfect!"

"That's what I thought. It's settled then." Rose smiled broadly.

Scorpius folded the paper and put it neatly on the table next to the fruit basket, eyebrows furrowed. "What's in it for him?"

Rose slowly turned her chin to meet his gaze and upon seeing his suspicious look, rolled her eyes as dramatically as she could without risking permanent eye damage. "Merlin, that is such a Slytherin thing to say!"

He had a humourless chuckle. "So Golden Boy decides, out of nowhere, to put his title in jeopardy because- because what exactly? He's into animal protection all of a sudden?"

Albus lifted his gaze from the food. "Come on now, honestl-" he was muttering when Rose slammed her hand on the table.

"What is your problem, Malfoy?" His last retort had sounded quite personal for a boy who couldn't have talked to Theo more than twice in his lifetime.

"A bit on the defensive there, Weasley?"

 _Oh boy,_ Emma thought. They had resorted to last names. _Again_. She shared a tired look with Albus, all grievances held upon him quickly swept aside in front of a greater enemy. _Their fucking endless rivalry_.

"Is he in love with your or something?" Scorpius pressed on, reptilian smirk making an appearance.

"That's something you'd say, isn't it?" Rose replied, calm but sharp. "Because a bloke can only do something nice to a girl if he wants to jump her bones, is that it?"

He snorted. "Oh, you innocent flower, you."

She swallowed back the ' _get lost'_ that was burning her tongue – though she would probably have gone with a less innocent flower-y synonym instead, and decided instead that to turn back to Emma, smiling but still tense.

"Plus we'll have visiting rights."

"Oh, good. Very good."

"But Albus and I, _niet_." Scorpius groaned.

"I didn't think you'd want to see the bloody fish." Rose snapped, looking right ahead and not at him.

"We don't!" Albus intervened, throwing a hand in the air out of frustration. "Mate, just be glad it's off our hands, yeah?" He shook his head disbelievingly at the pair of his friends. "You two will kill me one of these days. And Rosie?"

"Hm?"

"Tell Theo we owe him one."

As Scorpius wasn't watching, Rose mouthed a silent 'thank you' to her cousin, who winked back at her, although still a bit wryly, as he got up from the bench. "Well, I'm off. If anyone's up for Hogsmeade with me this afternoon, I'll leave around three. Until then, be nice!" he added, pointing to the three of them with a jokingly vigilant look before waltzing his way out of the Great Hall. He was probably going back to bed. That was the kind of thing Albus did on a Sunday, while Rose and Scorpius were studying, and Emma was having Quidditch practice or jogged around the grounds, either as voluntary physical exercise or in search of a missing textbook.

Rose lowered her head and was focusing on cutting her waffles in tiny pieces when she felt something brush her foot. Scorpius'. She lifted her gaze to meet his and saw he was grinning. In response, she kicked him in the shin as hard as she could without actually hurting him, and a soft laughter escaped from his lips. She kept her eyes on her plate, jaw set, but he knew she was doing her best not to smile.

* * *

Scorpius made quick work of his way to the dungeon, the soles of his trainers screeching occasionally on the paving stones. He arrived to the stone entry just as some of his housemates were leaving the common room, and took advantage of it to slip besides them through the passage before it closed up. He had to duck for a few metres before the passaged opened up on the spacious common room, and thought of how ill-fitting it was that he, being his tall self, lived in the underground, whereas Rose, who needed his help to get vials from the top shelves in Potions, had a high-ceiling tower to herself.

But he loved his common room. No matter how gloomy and pretentious she said she found it. She was one to talk. _Stupid riddles_.

Plus, he had a fear of heights, anyway.

He was planning on dashing directly to his dormitory to get some mint potion for his headache, but was hailed from the other side of the room.

"Oi, Scor!"

He turned his head, to discover his dorm mates and some other upperclassmen packed together on the circle of sofas right next to the fireplace. He walked up to them, resting his elbows on one of the couches' back. "Yeah?"

"You were at that badger bash yesterday, right?" That came from Alfie, muscular brunette who had been sleeping in the bed next to Scorpius' for six years. The blonde just nodded. "Yeah, so?"

"Did you see Cassie snogging some Hufflepuff bloke?"

As a matter of fact, he had. They had been on the receiving end of one of his predictions. _Not gonna work out._ The girl happened to be a 6th year Slytherin too but, of course, she wasn't presently in the company of her classmates. He reflected one second on whether he should tell them or not. It was terribly tiring knowing everything. "I might have… Why?"

Alfie cracked a smile. "She hasn't slept in her own bed."

Scorpius' teeth clenched, but he covered it with a chuckle. _He's had a crush on her for years but it's not..._ "Go Cassie," he replied dryly. He looked around the circle, shaking his head. "But seriously, don't you all have anything better to do with your day than prying?"

"It's Sunday morning, indulge us!"

Scorpius snorted and was about to leave for his dorm when the person who had been sitting on the couch behind which he was standing lift her chin vertically to meet his gaze. _Vicky_. "We didn't discuss you, if it makes you feel any better."

He lifted an eyebrow. "It doesn't. And I'm an open book."

"Oh really?" she went on, wicked grin in place. "Then where did you and Rose Weasley disappear to?"

It was obvious from the look on her face that she thought she had him cornered. _Cute._ "In the kitchens. Eating pie. Try and gossip about _that_."

"Weasley was there?" That was Reece, another one of Scorpius' dorm mate. Muggleborn, notorious flirt and Slytherin's seeker, with a definitely show off-y predatory look on his face. "If I had known, I would have reconsidered showing up." There were a couple of chortles around the circle, which utterly displeased Scorpius.

"Don't hold your breath on that one. Try to fish in your own league, yeah?" He turned around and left the conversation there, satisfied to hear some sniggers accompanying his last comment, and Reece's muffled but distinct voice groaning _'shut up'_ to his friends.

* * *

When Rose took a break after having successfully achieved every assignment she was aware of, she grabbed the still unopened book on her nightstand and made her way down to the Nest. She loved the perfect quietness and comfort of her own dormitory when she was getting schoolwork done, but when it came to kicking back on a Sunday afternoon, she hated silence. Even a Head Girl in the making was entitled to some leisure time on the weekend, although she was most certainly not going to join Albus on his trip down to Hogsmeade. Since it was Sunday, which meant the bookstore and the teashop would be closed, she didn't exactly see the point in going through all this trouble for one butterbeer. She climbed down the staircase rapidly, holding her cardigan closer to her body to keep away from the dampness and cold of February in Hogwarts. When she reached the second floor, she took a left and opened the heavy wooden door - which was always closed, not so much to keep the warmth inside than to keep Morse's prying eyes _outside_ \- entering the busy, pompously called, 'inter-house lounge'. It was a vast room, with high windows and a gigantic fireplace, adorned with sofas, coffee tables, and banners of the four houses hanging from the walls. She was extremely fond of this place; particularly on the weekends, because when the uniforms were discarded and everyone adorned their most confortable pair of jeans, for those who had made the effort of changing out of their pyjamas in the first place, you couldn't tell a Slytherin from a Gryffindor. Ok, yes, the Gryffindors _were a bit louder,_ but that was it.

The busiest place being the armchairs in front of the fireplace, Rose made her way to her usual remote spot, on the farthest corner of the room. It was, quite ironically, situated just under the commemorative tablets in honour of the Hogwarts students who had fought during the war. As a result, when she came to the Nest, she was literally surrounded by most of her relatives.

When she came to the sofa she had claimed her own a while ago, she found it was already occupied. Two mops of hair, one blonde, almost silver under the sunlight coming from the windows, and one shorter version of her own, were hunched over some books and a piece of parchment. _At least,_ she thought, _it stays in the family._

She plopped down on the couch next to the redhead and let her supplies fall on the table in front of them. "Hey Hugo, how's it going?"

Her brother slowly raised his head from the parchment, as if he hadn't even noticed her appearance. "Hi Rosie," he greeted absent-mindedly. "Scorpius's helping me with my Potions assignment."

"Is that so, hm?" She leaned in closer to get a look at the parchment, making a point of ignoring Scorpius. She still wasn't sure how she felt about him since breakfast. "You know you can always come to me for help, right? I _am_ , after all, _your big sister_. And _also_ good at Potions."

"Yes, but Scorpius is better," Hugo answered innocently, as he was scribbling something in the margin of his parchment. Scorpius let out a snort, particularly amused by the way Rose's jaw set instantly.

"He is not-" She cleared her throat, still not looking at the immediate vicinity of Malfoy, but sensing his victorious grin anyway. "But _I am_ better at Charms, and Transfiguration. Herbology too. So if you need any help with _those_ , you let me know."

With that, she sat back against the cushions as casually as possible, reaching for her book on the table and assuming her usual cross-legged position. She started reading, lulled by the dull white noise of conversations and Scorpius' low voice giving out Potions tips.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed – but, in page measuring, it was 17 and a half – when movement on the other side of the sofa brought her back to reality. Hugo was getting up, collecting all of his belongings spread around. "Finished already?" Rose asked absent-mindedly, not looking up from her book.

"We've been at it for an hour," was her brother's casual response.

She tried her best not to look surprised. She hadn't realized. How was it that, even without having any brother, Scorpius was a better sibling than she was? "I see," she looked up and smiled at Hugo. "Write mum soon, yeah? She's tired of always hearing from you through me."

"Tell her I'm very busy. Potions and all."

"Hugo…" she grumbled, but he was already leaving. He looked up from behind his shoulder and smiled.

"Thanks Scorpius."

"Anytime."

Rose's eyes followed her brother across the room. When he finally disappeared at the door, she turned her gaze back in front of her… and met Scorpius'. She hastily lowered hers back into her book, which lay still opened in her lap. From the corner of her eye, she saw him grin; she could tell by the way he let his shoulders fall. They always did when he was teasing. Now Hugo was gone, there was no barrier between them, and as she was sitting against the armrest, he was in the exact middle of her field of vision, although she pretended not to be aware of his existence.

"What're you reading?"

She was going to pretend a little longer. Rose nonchalantly turned to the next page, as he let out a snort. "Really? You're going to ignore me?" Still no answer. "And how long do you think that will last? 'Cause if you're thinking more than twenty minutes, I might have a nap in the meantime." She pursed her lips but kept her eyes firmly stuck to the paper. He sighed. "I'm going to bother you until you talk to me. You know that. So if you really want to read, you might want to go do that somewhere else."

"The thing is, you're on my couch."

So _that_ hadn't lasted more than a full minute. She loved being right far too much to just stay quiet. Bugger. He smirked victoriously. "I know. That's why I sat here." He looked around, nodding appreciatively. "It's a nice couch." Realizing she had gone back to her reading with only a slightly annoyed look on her face, Scorpius sighed loudly. "Come on, stop being mad for no reason."

"For no reason?" she choked, letting her book fall down on her lap. " _What_ was that about, at breakfast? The whole pratty bit?"

He extended an arm on the back of the couch, pivoting a bit to face her, looking somewhat uneasy. He shrugged noncommittally. "Just me looking out for all of us."

"You can't be serious. You can't reasonably play the nice bloke card and expect me to buy it."

"But it's true, okay?" He shifted a bit on his seat, visibly uncomfortable with what he was going to say next. "I just find weird that the Head Boy would be willing to hide a stolen fish just because – because it came up in the conversation or something. How do we know he won't give it back to Sigma? After that shit Nox pulled with his new laws, that could get us expelled!"

Rose let out a shriek of frustration as she closed her book. "Of course he won't give it back to Sigma! You barely know the guy, how can you think so poorly of him?"

"I don't know," he admitted, looking down. "I don't trust him. He creeps me out. His smile is too…"

 _Too what? Too genuine? Too handsome?_

"Too white," Scorpius finally spat.

Rose shook her head, ready to tell him how that had to be the shittiest excuse for disliking someone she had ever heard, when she raised her head up and their gazes met. He looked sheepish. He was giving her that boyish apologetic grin, the one that made him look like 11-year-old Scorpius all over again, dark grey eyes opened wide and biting his upper lip. She couldn't help but sigh as she felt her anger slip away. Perhaps all that misplaced suspicion had indeed come from a good intention. She lowered her look on her lap. "Well, you don't have to trust him," she muttered. "You just have to trust me."

"You're right, I know that." He nodded softly, a small smile reaching his lips. "Forgive me?"

"Was I cross? Oh right." She slapped her forehead, making Scorpius throw his head back and laugh wholeheartedly.

She blushed slightly – really in possession of neither control nor comprehension over the phenomenon – and took her book back, opening the story where she had left it. She could tell he was staring at her, but pretended not to notice. After a minute or so had passed, he sighed. "Come here." She looked up, pretending not to understand, but he gestured with his hand to tell her to come sit on his side of the couch. "Come here," he insisted.

She could have stayed put. He _had_ been quite the bloated git this morning after all, so he would have deserved her to. But he was not making resisting easy, what whit the fact that he was wearing his black woollen sweater. The comfortable one. Therefore she truly had no choice but to scoot closer to him, as his arm wrapped familiarly around her shoulders.

"So, what are we reading?" he inquired with a grin.

She showed him the cover, which displayed a bloody hand and a broken wand on a glass surface. "Criminal investigation in nineteenth century London, during a witch-hunt."

"Is it good?"

"Dunno. Barely started."

"Let's find out, shall we?" He opened the book, propping it up on his knee with one hand as Rose settled down more comfortably against him. Scorpius looked down at the copper mop of hair on his shoulder. It used to tickle him before, but his neck had grown accustomed to the sensation. He grinned, as his breathing out made some of the locks dance. "Bring on the Victorian gore."

* * *

When Albus stepped outside, the castle's front yard was surprisingly occupied. Although the weather was still crisp, the sun was shining blindingly, and you could always count on the younger students to turn their noses to the sun first occasion they got. Albus snorted upon realizing most of them were sporting house scarves. They'd soon learn. Everyone who was anyone at Hogwarts knew you didn't wear house colours on the weekends. That just wasn't done. Even the Beauxbâtons exchangees, always so tidy and overall blue, tried their hands at casualness on Sundays.

Albus made his way down the steps, slaloming between clusters of chatty 2nd years sitting there as if they owned the freaking place, and sauntered towards the road that led to town. It was quite a hike from the castle to Hogsmeade, but he didn't mind. He didn't want to wait for a carriage, plus he needed the exercise and the fresh air. He would definitely go off his rocker if he stayed confined in the castle for a whole week, drowned in the general atmosphere of hearsay and approaching-deadline panic. How students managed before, only being allowed to visit Hogsmeade once a month, was beyond him. It was too easy to forget there was actual life outside the castle, sometimes.

He pushed his hands into his pockets to brace himself against the wind and turned his head towards the sun – hell, lowerclassmen didn't hold the monopoly of vitamin D. That's when he heard the ruckus. A few shouts, feet screeching in the gravel, and his name hollered over it all. He turned around, knowing perfectly well who it was, and grinned.

Emma was running to him, wearing her yellow sweater stamped by a capital _E_ and waving unnecessarily at him. "Al, wait!"

He looked dramatically over his shoulder, then back at Emma, pointed at his chest and mouthed _"Me?"._ She rolled her eyes as she finally caught up with him. "You're talking to me now?" Albus sniggered. "What happened?"

Emma shrugged as she fell in step with him. "Water under the bridge."

"Since this morning?"

"Yup."

He cocked one eyebrow, smirking. "And the real reason?"

She let out a breath. "I was bored out of my mind and I didn't want to go to the Nest to have Scorpius force me to work on that Divination essay."

"That's more like it," he sneered, although not bothering too much with hiding how glad he was that she'd joined in.

"So," she went on cheerfully "I take it we're walking, uh? Well, that's okay. It's not as if I won a Quidditch game yesterday and have to rest my feet or anything. Nu-uh. I'm in my prime. No problem."

"Quidditch is an air sport," he exhaled, shaking his head. "Your feet literally don't touch the ground."

She turned a confused frown towards him. "Hm, Al, do you think I don't know that? I'm _literally_ captain."

Albus opened his lips to say something, but nothing came out. He could try to argue with this Emma-like logic, but since she'll undoubtedly have some other sophistic retort to oppose, there was no point. He just kept his head straight in front of him and the corner of his lips turned up as they took the right bend in the road. Emma's ponytail was dangling in rhythm with their steps as she half-closed her eyelids to soak her face in the sun.

"So, if I am not mistaken" she started, clicking her tongue. "We have quite the trek awaiting us."

Albus nodded gravely. "This statement is correct."

"We are therefore in possession of what nowadays youngsters call 'time to kill'."

"You are not at all wrong by asserting such a thing."

"So," she turned her head towards him, grinning like a loon "Lizzie Clement, uh?"

"Uh, what?" he scowled, just before he met her gaze and realized she was raising her eyebrows suggestively. "What? No!"

"Oh yes, mate. Where do you see this going? Is she a good snogger? You're gonna tell me everything. Because I'm your best friend."

"Scorpius's my best fr-"

"'Cause I'm your best friend," she repeated, beaming, as she interlocked her arm with Albus'. "And make it last too. Long way to go."

When they finally set foot in Hogsmeade, it was obviously no Saturday. Understand: no hysterical third years running around the place, travelling in pack of twelve while ridiculously over-dressed. And why would they? Honeydukes was closed and at that age, sugar rush seemed to be the only thrill to be found in town. Albus and Emma made their way up the High Street, as she was telling him about her favourite moments of yesterday's game. Louis turning over on his broomstick under the force of the bludger's hit was on top of the list. They had already passed Zonko's when she realized she had no idea whatsoever what their destination was.

"Tell me why we're in Hogsmeade again?" she inquired, knowing fully well that he hadn't shared that bit of information with her yet.

"I have to stop by Dominic's. Quills' new album came out on Wednesday, and he promised to save me one."

"You know it's Sunday, right?"

Al shrugged. "Martin said I'd just have to ring the bell and he'll open the shop."

"That's rather generous." Emma shot her friend a suspicious look. "What did you do to him?"

He winked at her with a grin of the 'oh _please'_ variety. "I'll have you know I'm a pretty cute bloke. I have that irresistible smile that makes people bend to my will."

"Oh yeah? Let me see."

He slowly turned his head towards her, sideways glance and perfectly mastered crooked smile in place, holding the pause for a few seconds. Emma let out a quiet whistle. "You weren't kidding. I feel the powerful urge to get you an asphoccino rising within me."

"Go with it pet, go with it."

She snorted and elbowed him in the ribs as they approached the Dominic Maestro's copper sign. As Albus rang the bell at the door, and after having agreed to meet back at the Three Broomsticks when he was done, Emma decided to go her own way to inspect the shop windows – although Scorpius' birthday was still a month away, as he always gave the most perfect presents, she had to think of a good one this year. After that expensive pair of Quidditch shoes engraved with her initials he had got her for Christmas, the usual Flourish and Blotts gift card just wouldn't do.

She took a stroll down the street, not really sure what she was looking for but nonetheless certainly not finding it. It was never easy making gifts to the boy who had everything and wanted nothing.

In Gladrags's window, she did a double take. A black sweater with tiny animated owls flying around the collar was on display. This was definitely something he would wear. She leaned in closer to check the price tag. It was a bit expensive, sure, but she could do without asphoccinos for the rest of the month. It'd probably be better for her health anyway, since when consumed in too large doses, it was rumoured to turn your teeth blue. A movement on the sleeve caught her attention. It took her a second to realize that it didn't come from the sweater but from the blurry reflection on the window. Someone was coming towards her, all messy brown hair, wide grin and spectacles. She was just about to turn around and shout a loud "Already?" at Albus when she realized what was wrong with the picture. Albus had perfect sight.

So she ducked. In retrospective, she would gladly admit that this was unquestionably _not_ her finest moment, nor even reasonable thinking for a clever witch like herself. Yet, there was a tall plant pot next to her and, reflexes kicking in, she ducked beside it, praying that He-who-wears-spectacles hadn't seen her.

But he had, the prat.

Of course he had.

That's what spectacles are _for_.

The voice came from behind her, making her muscles tense like ice between her shoulder blades. "Odd that. I remember you being taller."

"HA HA," she articulated exaggeratedly. Not particularly willing to turn around and face his inevitable smug grin, she started fussing idiotically around the plant.

A loud sigh was heard. "Emma, what are you doing?"

"It's Longbottom to you," she snapped as she got up and finally met his gaze. "And I was just examining the plant. Seems a bit scrawny to me."

"Since when do you care about plants?"

"Familial conditioning."

If he thought he was the cleverest person on the pavement, he had another thought coming. James shook his head silently, and as his glimpse fell on her outfit, the smug smile reappeared. "Nice sweater."

She didn't answer that, but just kept on glaring at him. The wittiness of the _'your grandma made it for me'_ retort that was burning her lips would be greatly decreased by the fact that it was as a matter of fact correct.

"Anyway, I'm glad I bumped into you-" James started tentatively.

"So it confirms the rumours you've been spreading about-" she cut herself off. She was going to say 'us'. _You wish_. "about you and I?" She crossed her arms bitterly.

His forehead furrowed. "I didn't spread anything."

"So why is all of Hogwarts saying that we are dating?"

"Hum, because that's what Hogwarts does?" he snapped back.

The prat had a point. Being the socially gifted witch she was, she didn't press the issue. It would only make her look dramatic. Instead, she uncrossed her arms and tried to sound less sullen. "If you have nothing else to add, Al's waiting for me."

"I do, actually. I wanted to ask you about the particulars of Saturday."

"Oh right," she hadn't given the date a single thought, too busy with the already blossoming gossip surrounding it. She tried to conjure the least tedious scenario possible. "Let's meet on the steps at 2 o'clock. Two butterbeers, walk down the street, Honeydukes, then back to the castle."

James grunted, turning his gaze away from her. "11 o'clock, until at least 4. And I'm in charge of the programme."

"You said 'ask', not 'negotiate'."

He smirked, leaning closer to her. He smelled faintly of burning wood and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on. "I'm not giving up the Map for some half-arsed date. I want the real deal."

"Fine," she hissed, teeth clenched. "But don't expect me to… to dress up or smile or anything."

"I don't." The grin deepened, reaching his eyes. "As a matter of fact, I like you just the way you are, _Emma_. Ponytail, grumpiness… The whole package."

"Good," she grumbled, realizing one second too late that it might not have been the most appropriate answer to convey her irritation.

He let out a soft laugh and took a step back. "You're gonna fall in love with me so hard, do you know that?"

She rolled her eyes, voluntarily bumping into his arm as she left, sneering over her shoulder. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

* * *

Next time, she'd bring a blanket.

Oh, don't get her wrong, this was positively cosy. The couch was sagging just the right amount, and Scorpius radiated a nice body heat plus a smell of clean laundry and mint, but their position left the other side of her body completely vulnerable to the draught sweeping through the too-big-too-ever-be-warm room.

Now that the sun was slowly setting and the golden light filtering through the windows fading, Rose was starting to get goose bumps on her forearms. That didn't mean she was going to do anything about it – they were just getting into the really gloomy part of the book. The _good_ part. As a matter of fact, the fourth corpse had just been uncovered.

They hadn't exchanged a word for hours, being far too engrossed in the story for banter, but she knew Scorpius was enjoying the Victorian gore. He made appreciative groans now and then, as well as the occasional muffled gasp, to be expected when reading a magical thriller. He read faster than she did, so after every last sentence he had to wait a little bit for her to catch up. He devoured words; she _savoured_ them. When her eyes had reached the last word of the page, she'd tilt her chin slightly, and he knew it was time to turn to the next. It worked out pretty neatly.

The story in itself was chilling. Perhaps the goose bumps hadn't come from the drop in the temperature after all. It might have been the fact that the fourth corpse had been found _with cabalistic marks on his skull_. Or even, if you were inclined to look to much into it, the fact that when she let out an involuntary shiver, Scorpius' arm closed in, although unconsciously, a little bit tighter on her.

The story in itself was _really_ chilling. That's why, when they were brought back to reality, possibly hours after having started on the novel, by a hysterical shriek, their hearts both missed a tremendous beat. Rose jumped violently, knocking Scorpius in the chin in the process, who didn't even took the time to notice, too distressed by the source of the shriek. She followed his gaze to the other side of the room. A small girl who could only have been a first or second year was standing in the doorway, sobbing uncontrollably. They both sprang to their feet, knowing at once something was wrong. Scorpius reached her faster than Rose did.

His voice came out tense, almost aggressive. "What happened? What is it?"

The girl let out another sob while trying to gain control of her voice. "It's – there's – I don't…" Every cluster of words came from a single, erratic outtake of breath, as her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably.

He put his hands on her shoulders and fell on one knee, trying to be as unintimidating as possible. "It's okay. Just tell us. She's a prefect,' he tentatively soothed, pointing to Rose who had just caught up with him. "She can help you."

The girl turned her wide, frightened eyes to Rose, who was donning her most reassuring expression, and her breathing timidly slowed down. "This girl, she – I don't know - I just went in and…"

"What girl?" Rose asked, her voice soft and controlled. "Where?"

A crowd was starting to form around them, all of the students in the room drawn by the ruckus, which would have annoyed Rose to no end if she had had time to give it a single thought.

"In the bathroom, I-" the words choked on her throat as her chin shook severly. "I think she's dead."

* * *

 **A/N:** Pardon my cliffhanger-y ways! I know, it's a bad habit. Thanks are in order for _Sally_ and _sherlock - it's a girl's name_ , for reviewing. You just have no idea how that can make someone's day and get them pumped to write the next chapter ;) This chapter was shorter than the first one, but I do believe the next will be a longer piece of work. Because many many things happening! I might take a bit longer to update, forgive me, but can you sense the finals in the air?

What are your thoughts so far? That would be so GRAND if you felt like reviewing, plus all kinds of criticism are welcome. Thanks for reading!


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